The Boy with the Golden Eyes
by The Blazing Torchic
Summary: "So we're in the past, possibly being protected by an insanely powerful ghost without a solid form, we might be being stalked by our own Vlad, Darry's pretending to be a clone, and we still have no clue how or when we're going to get home. Once again, why did we think a time machine would give us ghost powers?" No PP and plenty of OCs.
1. Prologue

**(Author's notes are in bold like this) Hello everyone, I'm The Blazing Torchic, who as you can probably tell likes Pok****é**mon, but feel free to call me Torch because that's what I'll be referring to myself as! Welcome to my second story ever, and my first story in the Danny Phantom phandom!

…**See what I did there? Heheheheh… yeah, it wasn't funny.**

**Anyway, **_**The Boy with the Golden Eyes **_**is one of those all famous and cliché next-generation-travels-back-in-time stories that hits Phantom Planet over the head with a shovel. Basically, the main trio gets sent back twenty-one years after an incident involving Vlad and the newest Fenton invention, The Fenton Time Machine. There, they attempt to not mess up their futures, run into a ghost with golden eyes who is insanely powerful yet can't keep a solid form, pretend to be ghost hunting clones, continuously wear charms that have strange effects, try to find out why Vlad sent them to the past, and try to find a way home. In the meantime, as will be shown through third-person sections in each chapter, two characters who were once rivals join up to bring them back, problems arise from them being in the past, and a very powerful ghost from an Alternate Timeline gets loose and starts an army of himself from other Timelines. Yep, fun. **

**The main trio of characters has Danny and Sam's son Darry, who is not a halfa yet all the ghosts seem to attack him anyway, Star and Tanon's (a random character that I created, he's not very important) daughter Liz, who is the main character and found out about halfas after an incident with the Ghost Catcher three years prior to this story, along with Tucker and Jazz's daughter Kelsey, who apparently knows the most about ghosts out of the main trio and found out about halfas when she was eleven. **

**Some other important characters I've created are Jaclyn Fenton, also known as Jackie Phantom, who is Danny and Sam's ten-year-old halfa daughter; Mark Foley, Tucker and Jazz's oldest son who works for Axiom Labs and with Valerie; TJ Foley, Tucker and Jazz's nine-year-old son; and Tempest, Clockwork's apprentice who apparently likes to troll and hates an Alternate Universe version of her named Infinite Hour.**

**Now that that's all over with, I should let you know that it will have very little impact on you figuring out what's happening in the Prologue. Sorry!**

**If you recognize it, I more than likely don't own it.**

Prologue; 

When he regained consciousness, he was confused. He appeared to be lying in a park, with another unconscious boy beside him. Standing up slowly, his heart skipped a beat as he realized that where he was laying was not a park, but the edge of a battleground. On the other side of the battleground was...

Oh.

Oh _no._

Nearly everyone who had been sent up against those ghosts was unconscious, except for Jaclyn. She was being held up by the back of her now human shirt, about to watch one of the ghosts...

Oh no. No, no, no!

He knew he had two options, he could stay where he was, or he could run.

He chose to run. At the moment, it was his best option.

Though, perhaps running _away_would be better option than what he had decided on doing.

If I die, he decided, I'm still coming back as a ghost! I won't let them win! I'll fight as much as I can!

They were all coming into clearer view now. His friends, his family, his...

Oh, crud.

He barely managed to stop and hit the ground before a stray ectoblast was fired his way.

I'm dead, he winced, I am so very dead. Well, at least now the ghosts will have an actual reason to hunt me.

He jumped up again and ran towards where everyone else was. As he drew closer, his heart started pounding faster. Nearly everyone else was still unconscious. Off to one side, was Jaclyn in her human form, being held as a captive. She looked exhausted, mortified, and... was that a little bit of hope in her eyes?

Yes, he smiled, yes it was.

A blue ectoblast suddenly hit one of the young halfa's captors, knocking it back slightly. The captor turned to face who had fired, and he did too.

It was Liz.

His heart started pounding even more as he realized that she was holding an Ectogun. She was trying to hold them off, even though it was obvious that she was in pain. He knew that a human's leg shouldn't be able to turn the way her's was. He had to give her credit for even being able to stand. As he moved closer, he noticed that Jaclyn's captors were about to attack Liz. One tied her up with an ecto-rope, and the other was about to fire a red ghost ray.

He made a split-second decision.

Pushing off from the ground, he jumped towards Liz. He rolled on one shoulder as he hit the ground and jumped to his feet with his arms spread out in a protective gesture. Liz muttered his name, and then screamed it. He pulled his attention from her just in time to see the ghost ray coming towards him, and his eyes went wide.

When it hit him, he felt nothing but pain. It felt like every fiber of his being was changing, rearranging, being split apart...

And then, as soon as it came, the pain was gone and the cold feeling of raw power seeped through his veins. After a moment, he realized the attack must've caused him to fall forward onto his face. He sat up, breathing heavily. He could feel the raw power seeping through him. He remembered this feeling- it was similar as to what had happened to him before, only more painful and there was more power. But each time, it had gone away soon after. Each time, he hadn't been sure if it had really happened.

This time would be different. He could feel it.

This time, there was no doubt that the raw power in his veins was real.

Moving up to his feet, he could sense the fear that was coming from Liz, from Jaclyn, and from all the others who had regained consciousness. A smirk appeared on his face, and he clenched his fists as he stared at the ones who had hurt him.

_"Well, what do you know?"_ He called, smirking. _"This time, these powers are here to stay."_He moved towards them, faster than he had in previous times. His hands were covered with golden energy, as were his feet.

He knew that this time, there was no way he could lose.

Behind him, he heard Liz's voice joined by Jaclyn's and several others. Somehow, even though they should've been lost in the sounds of the fight, he could still hear them repeat the words that some part of him had always known were meant for him. Each of them said one line, and each line caused his energy to hold a little more power.

"The Boy with the Golden Eyes,"

"His arrival will be a surprise."

"Hair of gray, sense of power,"

"Nothing will stop his reign."

"Stay on his good side,"

"Be far from his bad."

"For when his life is known,"

"And his cover is blown,"

"Nothing will block him from victory."

After that, they all blended into the background. It was just him and the ghosts, but soon there would only be one.

And he knew exactly who it would be.

After all, he was _the _Boy with the Golden Eyes. He was the one prophesied to hold more power in the Ghost Zone than even Pariah Dark. Some part of him had known for a long time that he would eventually find his destiny, and though he had never been sure of when it would be, he was more than delighted to accept his fate here and now.

He was tired of being underestimated, protected, and thought to be weak.

But now, the Boy with the Golden Eyes was going to make his mark on the world, without flickering in and out of existence.

Removing his golden coloured dagger from his belt, the boy didn't even attempt to deny how much he welcomed his chance.

**Confused yet? If you are, congratulations, you win absolutely nothing!**

**So, for this story I'm going to attempt to update once a week. I'm not sure if I'll be able too, but hey, I'll give it a try. The first chapter doesn't count in that sense, though, as I'll probably post it tomorrow or later today. So, be on the lookout for that.**

**Until then, please review, follow, favorite, check out my other story if you like Pok****é**mon, all that fun stuff. You don't have to do any of those, but I'd appreciate it if you did at least one.

**Oh yes, and if you have any ideas for a better title, summery, what I should put for characters or the genre, please let me know.**

**-Torch**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, the first chapter! This is mainly used to show a little bit of the current time and explain how the main trio gets to the past. There are also several lines that could be turned into one shots at some point in time. Of course, considering the fact that very little is explained, I'll be explaining a bit of what has happened between D-Stabilized, which is the last episode from the canon that I'll be using, and the current time.**

**First of all, when Dani was eighteen she came back to Amity Park. Valerie let her move in with her, and Tucker managed to put her into the system under the name Danielle Phenton. (It's Fenton with a Ph, like in Phantom) Dani started to help out Danny and they became known as the "Phantom Duo." Around this time, Danny's ghost form changed the way it looked. Think Dan, but with the teenage Danny Phantom hair, though slightly longer, and instead of a cape there**'**s a white trench coat with the DP symbol in black on his left sleeve.**

**Second, about ten years prior to this story when Danny was twenty-six and his daughter had been recently born, Sam convinced Danny to tell his parents that he was Phantom. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were all there for support, while Dani also waited invisibly in case they needed to make an escape. Jack and Maddie weren't happy, but more so with the fact that Danny hadn't told them before then. They accepted Danny, but had a minor freak out when they learned he had been cloned. But after that, all of their weapons were re-calibrated so that they wouldn't hurt Danny or Dani.**

**Third, even though this has almost nothing to do with the timeline, Jackie Phantom's outfit is basically Dani's, but it it doesn't expose her midsection (Where it would be showing is just a continuation of her suit's pattern), instead of the DP symbol there's a symbol that's basically a curvy J, and her hair is in pigtails.  
**

**Well, that went for a while. Of course, if you know it, I don't own it!**

…**That'll be my catchphrase now.**

Chapter 1; 

_A while before..._

"Yo Danny Fenton he was just fourteen, when his parents built a very strange machine. It was designed to view a world unseen," Darry, one of my best friends, rapped out for no apparent reason, causing me and my other friend, Kelsey, to break out laughing.

"Wow..." I choked out, "j-just wow."

Darry smiled as he rolled his eyes, "Remind me, why do you find my dad's theme song so funny?"

"_Theme song?_" Kelsey sputtered, "That sounds like demented wrapping paper! ...Wait, how would that work?"

Darry and I eyed Kelsey before sharing a smile. This was the Kelsey we knew and loved, without the stress of school hanging over us. I love summer, and not just because I could sleep in.

Right, I should probably introduce our trio, shouldn't I?

Darry's full name was Daryll Lee Fenton. His father was the one and only Danny Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, who was a ghost hunter, inventor and last I heard was on the shortlist to become an astronaut, while his mother was Sam Mason, who was a Veterinarian at the Amity Animal Hospital and author of the hit series "Going Ghost!" which was about a fictional ghost-human hybrid named Ashton Spencer in human form and Ash Specter in ghost form who tries to protect his hometown using his powers. Even though she denied it, everyone else who knew about the halfas in her family agreed the main character was based off of her husband. Darry was fifteen, his birthday was February twelfth, and he had a ten year old sister named Jaclyn who was half ghost. He was about sixty-five inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. He had light brown hair that always managed to look windswept along with dark purple eyes. His normal outfit is a light gray t-shirt with darker accents and blue jeans along with black and dark gray shoes that I couldn't explain to save my life. My other friend, Kelsey, was his cousin.

Kelsey's full name was Kelsey Madeline Foley. Her parents were Tucker Foley, the head of a software company called Too Fine Tech, and Jasmine Fenton, our high school's therapist. She was fifteen, her birthday was May fifth, and she has a seventeen year old brother named Mark who worked for Axiom Labs and a nine year old brother named Tucker Junior, or TJ for short. She was about sixty inches tall and weighed around 105 pounds. Her skin was lighter than her father's, but darker than her mother's. Kelsey always said that it was a "cocoa swirl" colour, whatever that meant. She had reddish-brownish hair which she kept in a high ponytail that was fixed with a white bow, and teal coloured eyes. Her normal outfit was a faded red shirt with brighter sleeves, gray capris, yellow socks, and black runners.

Finally, there was me. I'm Liz Penelope Moore. Okay, Liz isn't what it says on my birth certificate, but who cares? My parents were Star Garcia, Vice President of Axiom Labs, and Tanon Moore, the chief of the Amity Police, who were apparently both members of a Danny Phantom "Phanclub" and Casper High's A-list when they were younger, which I found contradicting and ironic. I was fourteen, my birthday was September third, and I had no siblings. I was about sixty-three inches tall and no, I will not tell you what I weighed. I had blonde hair which didn't go past my shoulders, and my eyes were green. My normal outfit was a short purple sleeveless shirt, a dark blue half-sweater-thing, baggy light blue pants, a neon green purse, and green sandals.

Oh yeah, and the three of us were currently wearing modified Spector Deflectors that wouldn't harm the "good" ghosts we knew. The conversation where I convinced my parents to let me wear mine was actually kind of funny.

Now that that's over with, back to the present.

The three of us were currently just hanging out around the town. Amity Park, Ohio, if you must know.

… Stalker.

To anyone who would happen to pass by the conveniently deserted street, we appeared to be three teenagers just walking down the street, laughing and singing- err, rapping.

I'm not saying we weren't, because we were. I'm just saying that people need to learn to take a second look at things. Because if they looked harder, they'd notice the fact that each of us had an arsenal of ghost hunting gear. Not because we wanted to be ghost hunters, but it was kind of Darry's family tradition. According to Darry's Dad, it was also good protection. And besides, Darry was a Fenton. The Fentons have always been obsessed with the supernatural.

… I know that includes Kelsey's brother Mark, considering that he works at Axiom Labs which has a lot to do with ghost hunting technology, but I wonder if that includes Kelsey. She seems reasonably sane... most of the time.

"Hey, Darry," Kelsey suddenly spoke up, "don't look now, but the Ecto-Tracer just picked up your dad's ecto-signature."

Darry sighed, "Alone or fighting?"

I raised an eyebrow, "We have ghost trackers made to see if ghost that aren't supposed to be here are, genius. Your dad must be alone, because they haven't gone off." Almost at once, a voice from my purse started shouting. "Wait, never mind."

"Ghost! A ghost is near! Ghost! A ghost is near! Ghost! A ghost is-" the machine shut up as Kelsey gave my purse a sharp kick.

"Was that really necessary?" I sighed, and Kelsey smiled.

"Yep!" within moments she had a Fenton Wrist Ray on and Darry had whipped out his Fenton Pistol. I picked out my portable Ghost Gloves from my purse and the three of us went into a defensive position.

"Show yourself you deathly... dead thing!" I shouted, and Darry let out a small laugh.

"Smooth," he smiled, and I tried not to blush. I don't even know why I was going to do so in the first place.

After a while of standing like idiots, Kelsey shrugged. "I guess the tracker is still broken from the last time I kicked it. Aw, I wanted to see Uncle Danny fight." She started to take off the wrist ray, but then there was a crash.

The three of us turned around in alarm to see Danny Phantom- or as I normally called him, Mr. Fenton- stand up slowly. Ectoplasm was dripping from a wound on his shoulder, and his gloves had gone missing in a flash of light.

Wow, he had trouble fighting. That's not a good sign. Amity Park may be doomed.

"_Dad?! _Dad, are you okay?" Darry gasped, and Mr. Fenton frowned.

"Darry?" he stared at the three of us in alarm, "You need to get out of here! Quickly, before Skulker shows up again!" it was Skulker who did that to him? I'm not sure if I should be concerned or disappointed.

"Dad, we could help-" Darry started, but Mr. Fenton cut him off.

"No! Darry, get out of here! Skulker is after _you_! And as much as I hate to admit it, he's actually a threat!" okay, I'm going with concerned.

"Can I get a C-R-E-E-P-Y?" Kelsey whispered, and a large ghost with flaming hair landed behind her.

"Well, this is convenient." The ghost smirked, and aimed a gun a Darry, who had turned to see the ghost land. "Greetings, Runt."

"Hey, Skulker." Darry shrugged simply, not really caring about the ghost that wanted to use the skin from most members of his family for a rug. Which, by the way, is definitely an ew. "Listen, I'm kind of busy right now. Can you go bug someone else? I don't think Box Lunch is doing anything."

Mr. Fenton dashed forward before Skulker could reply with his own witty come back, an ecto blast ready in his palm. He knocked the ghost back, but the small victory was short lived as a simple net was shot at the three of us, leaving us trapped with it somehow curving over top. I noticed it had been ghost proofed, and I exchanged a look with Darry and Kelsey. We were all thinking about how stupid the fact was, considering the only ghostly thing any of us had was the weapons. We all tried to stand up, and were promptly treated to a shock.

Well, that was unexpected.

"Don't even try," Skulker laughed, "it absorbs ghost powers in the area and sends them back into humans in the form of pain! As long as I have that halfa in there, there will be no way out for any of you! Only a human from the outside can take it away!"

At that, Mr. Fenton broke out laughing. I did too, but it was much more discreet.

…Okay, it wasn't. But let's just pretend it was.

"What's so funny, _Whelp?_" Skulker grumbled, and Mr. Fenton smirked.

"First of all, your plan has so many flaws. How are you going to get the net off of them? Second, what halfa?" he replied, still laughing, "Skulker, you really are the Ghost Zone's worst hunter. There are four halfas, sure, but my son isn't one of them. If I've told you once, I've told you a million times; there is no Darry Phantom." At that, the ghost hero of Amity Park sucked Skulker into a Fenton Thermos Mini, changed into human form, and pulled the net off of us three.

"Dad," Darry muttered as he stood up, "did you have to bring it up? I mean, I know that me not being like you is still kind of a disappointment, but..."

"Darry, no," Mr. Fenton sighed, "there is no possible way you could ever be a disappointment to me, okay? Come on, I'll give you and the girls rides home." He changed back into Phantom form and then picked up Darry and me while Kelsey jumped on his back. We took off into the air, but my delight at being able to fly with a hero was short lived.

I seemed to be the only one who noticed how upset Darry was. But then again, this was normal. Everyone- from what I'd heard, even the ghosts- had expected Darry to be a hero like his father.

No one had ever expected him to be Fenton's son, but not Phantom's.

No one had ever expected to learn, and many who knew still found it hard to believe, that Daryll Fenton had no ghost powers.

**XxXxX**

The next day Kelsey and I went to pay Darry a visit, only to find that his Mom was just about to drive the family to his grandparents' house. It was agreed that we could come, and then we were off to Fenton Works.

For anyone who doesn't know, that's just the name Grandma and Grandpa Fenton gave to their house.

Don't ask why unless you want to be attacked by a very strange explanation involving ghosts, portals, and fudge.

As soon as we reached Fenton Works, Darry and Jaclyn raced towards the front door. With Darry running and Jaclyn flying, the competition was far from fair. The stupid ten year old halfa had decided to go ghost during the ride there, and what did her parents do? Why, Mr. Fenton just lets her know that "Jackie Phantom" is getting better with her powers!

Excuse me while I go throw up.

Equal parenting, my foot. It's plain as day that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton love Jaclyn more than Darry. It's simple favoritism, no matter how much they deny it. Jaclyn has the abilities that set her apart from the crowd, and Darry is just a regular teen.

Anyway, when Grandpa and Grandma Fenton opened the door they immediately crushed Jaclyn, Darry, and Kelsey in a hug. I greeted them, handed over my smashed gadgets- most were Kelsey's fault- to be repaired, and followed Darry towards an extra room. Kelsey managed to find a Pepsi from somewhere before she joined us.

"You guys," Darry sighed, "I'm going to try something. We came here because my Grandparents are going to try a new portal-type invention powered by ectoplasm and electricity, but for all we know it could end up like their first attempt at the ghost portal. If not, well, I'm going to make sure it does. Then I'll be the one to fix it."

"You're... _what?!_" I stared at Darry in amazement. Sure, he'd had his moments where his sanity was a little iffy, but I never would've guessed he'd consider something so risky! "Darry, no! If we're thinking the same way, you better not try that!"

Kelsey tightened her grip on her pop can, "Darry, you're my cousin, and that means I should stand by your decisions." She sighed, "If you do go through with that, you better not die more than halfway."

"Deal," Darry agreed, and I placed a hand on his arm.

"Don't you dare," I muttered, tightening my grip. "Darry, don't you even dare. You have enough ghosts after you because of who your father is, you don't need ghost powers to add on to that. You have weapons to fight if you need to, but you don't need ghost powers!"

"What if I lost my weapons, huh? If I had ghost powers, I could fight back when ghosts attacked." Darry replied, pulling his arm away from me. "Liz, please, I need to do this. We can be the new Team Phantom, and shove that fact up Jaclyn's smug butt."

"Ew," Kelsey mumbled, shaking her head. "That's a really bad mental picture. So how do you plan on getting to the portal, Mr. Gonna-be-a-halfa?"

Darry shrugged, "It's our Grandparents. Trust me, that'll be the easy part." He started towards the kitchen; I stared after him for a second before grabbing Kelsey by her wrist and following.

**XxXxX**

"I still say this is a bad idea," I mumbled, fiddling nervously with the straps of my purse. Darry and Kelsey were staring at the newest Fenton invention; the Fenton Time Machine.

What an original name for a machine that according to the blueprints Kelsey found will transport people through time.

Don't ask why Darry thinks he'll get ghost powers from this... paradoxing? Is that a word? This paradoxing machine.

"Relax, I'll be fine," Darry replied, looking around. "I just need a Hazmat suit."

"Already taken care of," Kelsey spoke up, pointing to a hanging rack of holding a Hazmat suit. More specifically, a Danny Phantom costume. "That looks your size."

"If you get ghost powers from this," I pointed out, "you'll be a colours-reversed version of your Dad."

"Oh, yay," Darry sarcastically replied, picking out the Danny Phantom costume and proceeding to slip it on over his clothes, "It's my size... why is this even here?" he stopped, "Wow, it even has "Darry Phantom" written on the tag..." I frowned as I noticed that Darry was telling the truth, someone actually had written "Darry Phantom" on the suit's tag.

"Okay, that's just weird." I frowned, "It's also really uncreative. Are you sure the R's aren't just faded N's?"

"It doesn't make sense," Kelsey muttered, crossing her arms. She got a look on her face like she usually did when she was trying to figure something out. "Why does Darry get an already made jumpsuit? He's not a halfa yet. You know, maybe we're meant to all become halfas. Perhaps we should all go into the machine."

"Wait, no!" Darry and I both spoke up; blushing as we realized that it had been completely in sync.

"Uh," Darry cleared his throat, "I mean what if something goes wrong? Who'll explain it to our families? It'll be safer if it's just me who goes in."

Kelsey shrugged, "I'll leave a note. Trust me; we'll be fine, _together_."

I crossed my arms, "Trust you? Yeah, last time we put our trust in you we spent the week in ghost jail. And anyway, I don't feel like dying. Not even halfway."

"Okay, the ghost jail part was Jaclyn's fault. She shouldn't have gotten us lost in the Ghost Zone." Kelsey sighed and Darry nodded slowly. Kelsey was right, of course. It had been Jaclyn's fault that we ended up locked in the ghost jail. Though, the person break we staged was all on Kelsey… and the Shadow Hunter. He'd earned some credit, at least. "Come on, guys! Maybe the jumpsuit is here for a reason! Maybe it's here because Grandma and Grandpa were going to make Darry a halfa, and I think Liz and me should become one too!"

"I highly doubt that," I rolled my eyes, "listen, I don't approve of what we're doing _at all._ There is no way in the fiery depths of the Ghost Zone that I am stepping a foot into that machine! What if it doesn't work, huh?! What if we _die_?!"

"You, Miss Elizabeth Moore, do not have a say in what happens."

I knew right off the bat that I'd heard that voice before. They have no right to tell me what to do. I wouldn't listen to Vlad Plasmius unless someone's life depended on it, and even then it was iffy.

"Yeah, I kind of do," I turned around, trying to figure out where the voice had come from. I didn't even slightly expect what happened next, though I probably should have.

Vlad appeared and pulled my arms behind my back. Three weird vulture-looking ghosts did the same to Kelsey when she tried to help me out. Darry was looking at the two of us in... horror, I think? Yeah, that seems right. I kept looking around, trying to figure out what was going on, when my vision faded to darkness.

The darkness didn't last that long, I think. As soon as I could see again, I was sitting in the Time Machine. Kelsey was on one side of me, and Darry was on the other, wearing the jumpsuit. A frown became evident on my face as I realized that we seemed to be stuck inside, considering the fact that there was somehow a metal door that I had never noticed covering the entrance.

"Oh my gosh," Darry was whispering, and Kelsey was looking around it a daze. I noticed that the bow she always had on her ponytail was missing, and in its place was two dangling charms, one with a K and the other with a F. I felt something rub against my wrist, and looked down to see that I had similar charms, only with an E and a M.

"Guys," I mumbled, "what just happened?"

"...You know how my Dad always talks about the really creepy plans the other halfa Grandpa and Grandma accidently created always came up with?" Darry whispered, and Kelsey's face paled.

"Oh my gosh," her eyes were huge, "don't tell me. The vampire dude who locked us in the Fenton Time Machine was _Vlad_? Uncle Danny's archenemy, _Vlad? _The guy who turned us into cats that one time so he could scam Liz's parents, _Vlad?_" a single tear rolled down her cheek, and I tried to give Kelsey a sympathetic smile. She hated crying; no matter how many times her mom told her that it was good. "I take it back. I don't want to die..." her bottom lip trembled and she buried her face in her hands.

"We'll get out of this," I mumbled, trying to be optimistic. "We got out of being kidnapped by Spectra, and we'll get out of this."

"No, we won't!" wow, Darry, that was unnecessary and uncalled for. "Don't you see? This is all a plan to cause my Dad pain! You know how bad he was when he couldn't save that homeless guy in the warehouse fire last year! This is all some sick, twisted, messed-up plan to get to my Dad!"

And then the machine sparked to life.

Kelsey screamed, I screamed, Darry screamed...

And everything faded away...

* * *

Jaclyn "Jackie" Fenton, also known as Jackie Phantom, age ten, wasn't sure what had just happened.

She knew that her and her father's ghost sense had both gone off, her father had gone ghost than gone down into the lab to investigate, and there had been the sound of crashing for around two minutes before Jackie had phased through the floor to see her father fighting a blue ghost with pointy black hair. The blue ghost had made some comment about how her father should've be busy saving his son, pulled a lever on the wall, and left.

Then there were the screams... Jackie was sure of one thing; she would never forget the screams that echoed from the metal door on the black wall. A date started to flash above the door, and Jackie stared at it blankly as she calculated that it would be exactly twenty-one years, two months, three days, five hours, and forty-seven minutes ago.

How she figured it out so quickly most likely had to do with the fact that she was one of the few Fentons who were actually good at math and remembering the time.

Her father looked at the date, at Jackie, back at the date, at the door of the machine, at a green purse on a table, back at the machine, and Jackie could hear realization creep into his voice.

"Oh no... Liz, Kelsey, Darry... they were _inside _of there..."

Her father, the seemingly unbeatable Danny Fenton and the hero Danny Phantom, had never looked so defeated. Jackie's first thought was to rush up and give him a hug, but something held her back. Instead, she chose to spare her father the pending pain. She rushed up to the main level and turned the corner to see her Mother and her Grandparents staring at her. They all stood up, expecting her to speak. But suddenly, she couldn't. Her mouth moved, but no words came out.

"Jackie," her Grandma spoke up, "which ghost was your Dad fighting?"

Jackie finally found her voice. "I don't know. He was blue and his hair was in two points..."

"_Plasmius_. I can't believe he's back." Her Grandpa pulled a ghost weapon out from who-knows-where. "Is he still here? Where're the other kids? I saw them go down the stairs-"

"They're gone!" Jackie burst out, dropping to her knees. "They're... they're all gone. Daddy couldn't save them... they were inside..." her bottom lip started to tremble. "Darry, Liz, and Kelsey were all inside of the machine... Daddy didn't know. The blue ghost did." She placed her face in her hands and her body was racked with sobs. Her Mother pulled the young girl close while the Grand-Fentons moved at top speed, for two seniors, down to their lab.

Jackie could feel her Mother trying not to cry, and was well aware of one thing;

The date she had seen had some importance, and she'd have to figure it out if she ever wanted to see her brother, her cousin, and the girl who they'd befriended again.

I guess, Jackie thought, it's just another day's work for a hero in training. Dani can look after the city, Mom can look after Dad, and I... I can bring those three home. But how? I need to think and the fact that I'm still crying doesn't help!

**Vlad's being creepy and planning something… the main trio got turned into cats once… they also were arrested… yep, I think I've covered everything! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll more than likely answer them to the best of my abilities.**

**So, any thoughts, comments, or concerns with this chapter? If so, the review button is your friend.**

**And now, time to thank yesterday's supporters!**

**Thanks to **_**popie92**_** for following the story and their review, even if it was only one word, and to **_**Spectral Angel**_** for their review!**

**I'll be back with the next chapter next Thursday, and until then, please review, follow, favorite, or anything along those lines.**

**Until then, I'll be attempting to update my profile to include a "theory" that will come into play at around chapter four. Wish me and my amazingly slow writing skills luck!**

**-Torch**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: And here's chapter two, the first chapter where the main trio is in the past and my computer decides that "Darry", "Maddie", and "Vlad" aren't words!**

**I have no clue why it didn't do that last chapter.**

**So, I realized that I forgot to explain the new Fenton inventions I created last chapter, so I'll be explaining them now. **

**Fenton Pistol: A dark green 9mm pistol that has the ability to coat bullets with its stored ectoplasm. Jack Fenton gave it to Darry for Christmas when Darry was ten. Needless to say, Sam and Danny were not impressed. At least Jack was smart enough not to give Jaclyn a gun.**

**Ecto-tracer: Created by Jack and Maddie Fenton after an incident with Danny, Skulker, and the Ghost Catcher three years prior to the "future" of this story. Nine were made, without Danny's knowledge, and give to several characters. Namely Kelsey, Dani, Jaclyn, Valerie, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz while Jack and Maddie kept the other two for themselves. The main functions of the Ecto-tracer is to detect Danny's Ecto-signature and any abnormalities it may or may not have. If it just senses his Ecto-signature, it'll vibrate. If it senses an abnormality in it, which could appear if Danny is overshadowed or his human and ghost halves are separated, it'll beep. Jack and Maddie are considering making Ecto-tracers for Jaclyn and Dani's Ecto-signatures.**

**Ghost Tracker: Think Fenton Finder, only smaller. If it detects a ghost who's Ecto-signature has not been entered in it, the Ghost Tracker will start to loudly a repeatedly call out, "Ghost! A ghost is near!" Kelsey seems to hold a grudge against this device, and often attempts to break it when it goes off. Liz is the one who usually has these, and keeps over twenty in her room at any given time to replace the ones that break.**

**Fenton Thermos Mini: A refined Fenton Thermos created by Danny. It's only a couple of inches high, but will expand to about half the size of a Fenton Thermos if it holds a ghost. Apparently, it's bigger on the inside than a Fenton Thermos.**

**Portable Ghost Gloves: Another one of Danny's reformed Fenton inventions. In one form they are two rings, metal bands with small balls of condensed ectoplasm connected to it. If the two balls of ectoplasm are held together for ten seconds, the rings change so that they cover the wearer's hands. They resemble the Ghost Gloves/Ghost Gauntlets, hence the name. **

**Fenton Time Machine: …Jack and Maddie were uncreative when they named this one. That's all I have to say.**

**If you know it, I don't own it!**

Chapter 2; 

The first thing I said when I woke up was simple;

"Ow."

I sat up slowly, my hands on the side of my head. Everything was spinning, and I tried to get my breathing under control. Once I finally managed that, I forced my eyes open and looked myself over.

I still had the stupid bracelet on. I was missing my purse, which sucked, and I had somehow ended up in an alleyway, which couldn't be a good sign.

A groan alerted me to a very much disoriented Darry, who was lying to the left. He was back in his normal clothes, though he had two of the charms on a chain around his neck; a D and a F.

Kelsey was a little ways away from Darry. She had her bow from her ponytail back. Now, judging by what had all just happened, these charms probably have a really stupid reason for being here. And why were they my initials? I hate my full name! It's too... regal or something...

"This is just too weird," I mumbled, and Darry gave a slow nod.

"What do you think happened? Besides the fact that my clothes were randomly changed, of course." He slowly stood up, and I did the same. Kelsey opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off.

"I know that Vlad Fruitloop did something, that part's obvious. But the question is why." I frowned, "Were we a test, or a device to make your dad beat himself up?"

"Yeah, guys, I'm gonna have to cut you short." Kelsey spoke up. Darry and me turned to her as she stood up, and Kelsey let out an annoyed sigh. "Point one, why did we think that going in a time machine would give us ghost powers? What are we, stupid? Or is that just Darry?" Darry frowned, but I decided it was because of Kelsey's insult. "Point two, I still have the Ecto-Tracer. It's in my pocket, spazzing out."

I frowned, "So wait, where's Darry's Dad and who's messing with his ecto-signature?"

My question was answered as a person with white hair and a black Hazmat suit crashed down right behind Darry. The three of us turned to face a teenage Danny Phantom as he pulled himself up off the ground and jumped back into the air to keep fighting... himself in human form?

Well, that was unexpected.

After that strange encounter, Darry was the first to say anything.

"Why the heck is my Dad our age and without a cape?"

"Simple," Kelsey replied, "we were in a time machine. We time traveled." The way she said it it sounded like the most normal thing in the world. "Wait, a cape? Oh yeah, separated halves. The bed sheet cape. Makes sense."

"So, this is the past?" Darry frowned, "That explains a lot, but it's still very creepy. I mean, considering that this is the second time it's happened to me. My Dad, our age..." his face twisted, "fighting _himself_... geez, is Tempest trying to help me out again?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that this is all on you." Kelsey replied, crossing her arms.

"And you two should probably shut up now," I cut in as a stray ectoblast landed a little farther into the alleyway. "Also, we should probably leave. We should get into the Ghost Zone, find Clockwork, and go home."

Darry gave a thumb's up and Kelsey nodded. I poked my head out of the alley, breathed a sigh of relief once I realized it was deserted, and motioned for my friends to follow. I led the way around the corner, where I promptly bumped into a goth girl and a techno geek.

A teenage Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson.

Well, cue the nervous laughter. This is awkward. On the bright side, it wasn't my mom or dad.

"Dad-" Kelsey started, and I clamped my hand over her mouth. She, as usual, suddenly became incredibly juvenile and licked my hand.

"Ew!" I gasped, wiping it off on her shirt.

"Great, you two finally lost the one thing you never had, sanity." Darry sighed, and turned to face the two people who would become his mom and uncle. "Your friend's in the alley, you might want to assist him before his gets killed by himself. That just sounds bad." He grabbed Kelsey and me by the sleeves of our shirts and dragged us for the next block before finally letting us go outside of a familiar restaurant. The Nasty Burger.

Even though the name disagrees, they have very tasty burgers.

"We have time to stop for food, right?" Kelsey spoke up, "I wonder if they have chicken burgers in the past. Because if they do, I shall be eating them now." She pulled a crumpled twenty dollar bill from her pocket and entered the store. I exchanged a look with Darry before the both of us followed. It's not like anything bad was going to happen if we just stop for a bite, right?

**XxXxX**

As it turns out, that was a bad idea. Why did I have to tempt fate?

Because of the fact that Kelsey's money was too new, the three of us were now sitting in the Nasty Manager's, as Darry had called him, office. We were told to phone our parents and tell them that we had counterfeited money, otherwise we would not be able to leave.

But for obvious reasons, we couldn't. Mr. Nasty Manager just couldn't get it through his head that we weren't able to. And then there was the fact that Kelsey, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes herself, could be charged with a criminal offense.

This day is just plain weird even without the time travel.

"But that was real! I would never counterfeit money, you have to believe me!" Kelsey was almost begging, though she hadn't quite gone that far yet.

"No," the manager replied, "I don't. And the three of you will be staying here until someone comes to claim you." He stood up and stormed out, locking the door as he went. Kelsey crumpled to the floor, her head in her hands.

"I didn't do anything!" she choked out, "why am I being punished?"

"It could be worse," Darry spoke up, and then smacked his palm to his forehead. "Why did I say that?"

"Because you're an idiot," I rolled my eyes, "this is stupid. Why don't we just phone your grandpa and say we have information on ghosts, but we'll only give it to him if he shows up and pretends to be our guardian?"

"That plan reeks of disaster." Kelsey mumbled, looking up. "We'd be safer blasting a hole in the wall then doing that." I exchanged a look with Darry and smiles formed on both of our faces. "Wait, I was joking!"

"Too late for that!" Darry called, and pulled a Fenton Pistol from... I don't really know, actually. He charged it up, and fired at the wall. As the dust settled, Darry and I dragged Kelsey out the resulting hole and into the alley. "See? No harm..." Darry started in an attempt to comfort his cousin, but trailed off for a very valid reason.

Off to the side was the teenage Danny Phantom. He was holding a Fenton Thermos, and staring at us in confusion.

"He did it," Kelsey muttered, pointing a finger up at Darry and then towards me. "And she thought it was a good idea."

I swatted her hand away, "Will you ever learn when to shut up?!"

"No, she won't." Darry replied and teenage Danny Phantom landed in front of us. "And now we're screwed."

"Who are you guys?" teenage Danny Phantom- I'm just going to call him Danny- asked, "…And why did you blow a hole in the wall of the Nasty Burger?"

"Because we needed a distraction," Kelsey spoke up, and there was a slight click. I looked at her in surprise as she stood up, a Fenton Thermos Mini in its full size with the lid unscrewed in her hands. "Sorry, but it seems like that'll be you." She pointed the thermos at Danny, who didn't even have a chance to escape. He was sucked in, and Kelsey screwed the lid back on in one fluid motion.

"Okay, that was unexpected," Darry frowned and took the thermos from Kelsey, "why did you do that?"

"We need to get rid of him," Kelsey replied with a shrug, "him being around us could cause a temporal imbalance that could erase us from existence."

"Wow, have you been hanging out with Clockwork and Tempest or something?" I mumbled and pulled a pad of paper and a pen from one of the pockets on my sweater. "Looks like Jazz is going to be getting a package. Darry, you're going to be writing it since you actually have neat handwriting. Kelsey, don't even offer. I can't understand your printing, let alone your handwriting." Kelsey rolled her eyes but didn't disagree.

"Oh, yay, writing." Darry's voice was dripping with sarcasm, and I handed him the pen and paper. "Should I write her a letter or just "Jazz"?"

"Nobody cares," Kelsey replied, "but we should really get out of here. Like, right now, before the Nasty Manager figures out we're gone."

And with that, the three of us ran. We dropped Danny off at his house, rang the doorbell, and then ran off again. We were halfway to the park when Darry pointed out that we'd have to go back and get the Fenton Thermos Mini from the past Fentons.

So once again, we ran.

And I called my friends stupid for almost forgetting about the thermos, but that wasn't the point.

* * *

Daniel "Danny" Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, age fifteen, had been having a bad few days.

First, he had to fight a ghost who had trapped him in ghost form for the past few days and possessed his human form. He ended up having to figure out how to get back to his human form after he beat the ghost. It wasn't fun.

Second, someone blew a hole in the Nasty Burger when he just so happened to be flying by.

Third, the guy who apparently did it looked a lot like his human form, he had a different hair and eye colour, but he still looked a lot like Danny did. Knowing his luck, Danny was sure he'd be blamed for the hole in the wall. If his human form wasn't, his ghost form would be.

Fourth, a girl who had been beside the guy had trapped Danny in a smaller version of the Fenton Thermos.

Fifth, when he finally managed to get free he'd crashed into Jazz, hit his head, and bit his tongue before turning back into his human form.

Yep, this week wasn't going very well. On the bright side, whoever had trapped him in the thermos had returned him to his house.

Danny wasn't sure he wanted to know how they knew where he lived or how they got a Fenton Thermos.

So now, Danny was sitting on the living room couch, reading the note the that his captors had oh-so-kindly included.

_To Jazz, but also Danny._

_Sorry about what happened, but apparently we would've messed things up if we didn't do it. Sorry, but none of us really want to be killed._

At this point, there was a messy scribble that Danny couldn't make out. One part of it resembled the word "Temp", but other than that Danny wasn't sure what it was supposed to be.

_With any luck, you'll never see us again for a really long time._

_Sincerely, we shouldn't say._

_PS; if you see Vlad, use your ghostly wail. That guy needs some sense knocked into him._

Making sure that no one was in a place where they could see or hear him, Danny called out, "I'm going ghost!"

Twin blue-white rings appeared and spread over the length of his body. His normal white t-shirt with red accents and a red oval, red sneakers, and blue jeans changed to a black Hazmat suit with white boots, gloves, and a white DP symbol on his chest. His raven black hair turned snow white, his ice blue eyes turned electric green, and his pale skin tanned slightly.

Danny Fenton had just become Danny Phantom.

He was about to turn intangible and fly out when it occurred to him that Jazz had called his parents and let them know that their son was back to normal. They would be expecting Danny to be there, in his human form. They weren't expecting Phantom, and now that Danny Fenton was back to normal, they'd probably shoot Phantom.

Danny sighed and transformed back to Fenton form. His parents were going to want to do tests on him, which couldn't end well. At least he could pretend that any ectoplasmic residue was a result of having Morphic hanging out in his body.

Danny was distracted from his thoughts by someone knocking on the door. He watched as Jazz made her way out of the kitchen and opened the door, only to be caught in a net.

Well, looks like the day could get worse.

"Oh cinnamon buns. Sorry my dear, I was expecting your brother to answer the door." A voice called, and Darry ran up to help Jazz out of the net. Standing on the other side of the door was a familiar ghost, but something seemed off.

"What do you want, Plasmius?" Danny spat, sparking an eye-roll from Jazz as she escaped from the net. "Seriously, I'm having a bad week. Could you go away, and take the stupid net with you!"

Vlad Plasmius smirked, "Temper, Daniel. I'm just here to check on my drones, though it seems they aren't here." He glanced at the net, "How unfortunate. I created a net that zones in on the nearest pure human, only to have the three of my drones vaporized in the time stream."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Look, Fruitloop, I don't care and I don't even really want to know. Mom doesn't love you, you'll never kill my dad, and I'll never become your evil little apprentice. And I still don't know what you want with Jazz. Now, go away." He started to close the door, but Vlad pulled it back open and lifted Danny up by the front of his shirt.

"Now Daniel you listen and you listen well," Vlad stared into Danny's eyes and Danny tried to struggle out of the older halfa's grasp. "You are going to do exactly as I say, or I'm going to kill your family off, slowly and painfully, while you watch. Am I understood?"

"Wow, Cheese head, you've gotten violent." Danny remarked, rolling his eyes. He couldn't go ghost, not in plain view of the three people from the Nasty Burger running towards him...

Wait, the people from the Nasty Burger?

"Well, what do you know? They lived." Vlad smirked, and dropped Danny to the ground. Danny watched as the three people from the Nasty Burger ran towards him, and brought his palm to his face when the brunette girl tripped, causing the three of them to fall down in a heap.

Danny groaned, "My heroes."

"Oi! Vlad Fruitloop!" the blonde girl called, holding up what seemed to be pistol as she jumped to her feet. "Leave him alone before I end your half-a-life!"

The male member of the group and the brunette girl stared at the blonde girl in surprise before the male member choked out, "Liz, one of your puns made sense!"

"It did?" Liz let out a small gasp of surprise, "Oh my gosh! It did! Kelsey, you owe me twenty bucks!"

"Let's settle the bets later!" the brunette girl called, reaching into her pocket and pulling out what seemed to be two Fenton Wrist Rays. "Right now, we have a certain- probably Russian- ghost to take down!"

"What does him being Russian have to do with anything?" the male member of the group asked, suddenly wearing a pair of Ghost Gloves.

Danny raised an eyebrow as he realized they all had Fenton Works weapons. Okay, he thought, when did they get those?

"Now Kelsey," Plasmius spoke calmly, but still with his tone that sounded like he was plotting ways to make your life horrible. "I suggest you, Darryll, and Elizabeth put your weapons down. I am, after all, the reason you three are here."

"We're perfectly aware of that, but do you think we care? The answer is no, we don't." The male member of the group- Darry, wasn't it? - spoke up, and Danny took a few steps back into his house so that he could go ghost without them seeing.

That plan, of course, had to be terminated once Danny noticed the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle driving crazily towards his house and heard the overly enthusiastic yells of "Ghost!"

His parents had arrived.

Danny wasn't sure if it was a good, because his parents could more than likely get Plasmius to go away, or bad, because of the pending experiments.

Of course, it would just a part of his ever-so-_wonderful _past few days.

**Blah, these author's notes are taking too long to write and my arms hurt because of the stupid needles I got at ten this morning. I don't think they should still be sore after around twelve hours, should they?**

**Meh, what am I complaining about? I won't be dying from whatever the shots were for.**

**Anyway, I should probably explain the reason Danny Phantom was fighting Danny Fenton. In short; a ghost called Morphic, who looks like a blue-ish shadow-type ghost with red eyes and has a tendency to overshadow people, is to blame.**

**In long; while fighting a ghost who Danny hadn't seen before, Danny was knocked out. He woke up in the Ghost Zone, and found that he only had very vague memories of the fight. He made his way home, but upon entering the real world he found that he could not change back to Fenton form. Panicking, he flew to Sam's house. Upon reaching his friend, Sam told him that he had returned from his ghost fight, but hadn't paid any attention to her or Tucker. Tucker and Jazz were alerted, and the four of them decided to look around for human Danny. Ghost Danny actually did find his human half, and noticed that it had red eyes. Confused, Danny started to fight with his human half, which eventually revealed that it was named Morphic. Morphic did eventually manage to escape, and by this time Jack and Maddie were going around trying to find their son. Tucker came up with a plan, thanks to the fact that Danny had recently gotten better at duplication. Danny duplicated himself, had his duplicate use some of his ice powers to turn his eyes blue, and then laid the duplicate down on Danny Fenton's bed. After a few minutes where Jack and Maddie tried to shoot the real Danny who in turn tried to protect his duplicate, Jazz managed to tell them the lie that Tucker had thought up. Danny Phantom had been practicing duplication in the Ghost Zone when one of his duplicates was surrounded by a blue mist and its eyes turned blue. The duplicate then started to fall, even though Danny had not told it to. After finding that he had no control over the duplicate, Danny went down to save it. Before it went unconscious, Danny managed to get five words from it. Danny, Fenton, Amity, Park, and Morphic. So Danny Phantom brought his duplicate to Fenton Works and explained what had happened to Jazz, who called Tucker and Sam before calling his parents. Danny offered a truce with his parents until they could find and capture Morphic, and had his duplicate agree. Jack and Maddie in the end did agree to a temporary truce. After a few days of trying to keep up the ruse they had created, Danny was beginning to think that his human half was gone for good. However, that changed when Jack and Maddie reported that they had seen Danny Fenton. After that, the two battled, unknowingly being watched by the main trio…**

**Okay, that took way too long to type and now my arm hurts even more.**

**Thanks to **_**Spectral Angel**_** for their favorite and their review, and to **_**Hollyflash**_** for creating Morphic for me!**

**So, my possible readers, please review, favorite, follow, or whatever else you want to do!**

**See you next Thursday, even though I don't think I can actually see any of you… oh well.**

**-Torch**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: And here is Chapter 3! I hope you people are enjoying this Singles Awareness Day! I sure am, I spent it all with my Plot Gerbil/Muse/Thing that was created when my cousin ranted about how Plot Bunnies were mainstream and that writers shouldn't be mainstream. His name is Phil.**

**Phil: You have a weird cousin.**

**Torch: That I do! He also inspired the "she bent a doorknob" line and Kelsey's exploding when he told me of when one of his friends came to visit him, bringing with him his two cousins; a younger boy and an older girl. They spent the night, and during that night the girl apparently snapped. She also later claimed that she was doing what she did because they have hurt her cousins and insulted her. Now, my cousin had a friend over along with him besides the one that had brought the cousins. As his parents had instructed, the five of them were all in a camping trailer to sleep. The girl called her cousins to a room on one side of the trailer while my cousin took his other friend to the other side of the trailer. My cousin said that they then started to insult each other, and his other friend called the girl a fat chick. The girl then proceeded to run across the trailer and try to force the door open. My cousin and his friend who was with him weren't able to hold the door closed, so they wedged it with a piece of wood. The girl still broke in, marched up to my cousin, and was just about to punch him in the face when she relaxed slightly, smirked, and went back to her side of the trailer. My cousin looked out the door after she had left, and noticed that the doorknob was slightly out of place. The girl had bent the doorknob.**

**Phil: You assume everyone wanted to know that.**

**Torch: Yeah… If you know it, I don't own it!**

Chapter 3; 

I groaned as Plasmius disappeared mere seconds after past versions of Grandma and Grandpa Fenton arrived home. They jumped out of their RV, ghost weapons ready, while Kelsey and Darry tried to hide their Fenton Works weapons. I tossed Darry his Fenton Pistol back, and the three of us tried to look innocent and not be noticed.

Which, of course, we failed at. I blame Darry.

"Were you three after that ghost too?" Past Grandma Fenton- you know, I'm just going to go onto a first name basis with these past people and call her Maddie- lowered her ghost weapon and stared at the three of us expectantly.

"Actually, yes." Kelsey replied, while I exchanged a confused look with Darry. Kelsey had managed to somehow score over a hundred percent for a final mark in her _Drama: Intro to Improv_ option last year, so we didn't doubt that she had a plan. It would help, though, if we knew what it was. "You see, the three of us work for the Moore Company, a company that specializes in training ghost hunters and..."

"They can babble on about ghosts with me!" Jack somehow managed to crush the three of us in a hug, even though I swear he was by the other side of his house a second ago. "And they can help experiment on Danny!"

Darry and Kelsey both paled at the mention of their future relative. "Um, pardon me sir, but could you put us down and tell us who Danny is?" Kelsey asked, putting her overly polite demeanor that was reserved for talking to people she had met for the first time into effect. "Is he human, or ghost?"

"I'm Danny," a voice called as the boy Vlad had been holding up stood in the doorway. Of course, we already had figured out that he was Danny, but not knowing him would make much more sense for whatever lie Kelsey was coming up with. Though, he did look creepily similar to Darry. It's not something we really noticed in our own time period, but now the similarities were incredibly obvious. "I've been overshadowed by a ghost, so I guess my parents want to run some tests, even though..." he didn't get to finish, because at that moment, Jack dropped the three of us and rushed over to give his son a hug.

"Danny-boy! You're normal again!" Jack cheered, and Maddie rushed over to join the group hug.

"Normal?" I rolled my eyes, "So I guess this is before they figure out about Phantom, huh?"

I should explain that line. From what I've learned about the subject, Grandma and Grandpa Fenton stopped saying that Mr. Fenton was "normal", instead saying that he was "himself" after they figured out about his ghost half. I don't really get why they made the switch.

"No duh," Darry snorted in reply to my comment, "he didn't even tell them until a few months after Jackie was born. If they knew, I'd need to go find a place to hurl. I mean, he's like my age or something."

"You guys, we're wasting our chance!" Kelsey groaned, "Let's get out of here before..."

"Would the three of you like to come in and help us test for lasting effects from our son being overshadowed?" Maddie asked, and Kelsey clenched her fists.

"Uh, sure, we need to contact our client anyway. I assume you have a phone we could use?" Kelsey replied leading the way into Fenton Works.

"Am I the only one who wants to know why they're being so nice to us?" I whispered as Maddie and Jack directed us to a phone in their kitchen. "And Kelsey, why did you want to use a phone?"

"I don't, I just needed something to say and that's what came out." Kelsey mumbled, "And personally, I think they're being so nice because Darry looks like Danny."

"Great," Darry muttered, shaking his head. "Even in the past I can't get out of his shadow."

"Uh, did you just say that even in the past you can't get out of someone's shadow...?"

The three of us spun around as someone spoke up, each of us slightly panicking in our own way. I felt my body tense, and then relax slightly as I realized who had spoken.

It was just Jazz. We might be able to bluff our way through this.

"Oh! Uh, hi, Mo... uh, Miss..." Kelsey mumbled, messing around with her hair. It was her nervous twitch, something that her future mother easily caught onto. So much for being able to bluff our way through this. "I, uh, never heard you come up..."

"That is what your friend said, isn't it?" Jazz crossed her arms over the book she was holding. "How far into the future are you three from? And why are you here?"

"Well, we've just created a temporal imbalance." I mumbled, "And now we're all gonna die. If not by drowning in the time stream, then by Clockwork or Tempest or some other time ghost coming to kill us off. Yay."

Darry looked around slowly before answering his future aunt's question. "Honestly Jazz, I'd tell you but I'm not so sure myself. All I know is that we're here because of Vlad Plasmius and some of our own stupidity."

"Speak for yourself," I muttered, and small smile twitched onto Kelsey's face.

"And besides," she mumbled, "I don't really want to be overanalyzed right now, Mom, or-" she clamped a hand over her mouth, "that didn't come out right."

Jazz raised an eyebrow, but didn't get a chance to ask another question before Jack showed up and proceeded to drag us all down to his lab. Danny was sitting on a table, looking at us with suspicion. I didn't mind, but from the look Darry was giving him in response I'm pretty sure he did. Jazz just kept shooting us confused looks, while I managed to keep up the ghost hunter facade.

"So," I started, "what exactly happened to... Danny, was it? He was overshadowed, correct? When did that happen?"

"I had my human body taken over by a ghost called Morphic while apparently my "spirit" hung out in the body of one of Danny Phantom's duplicates." Danny answered, crossing his arms. "By the way, he really didn't like it when you guys captured him."

"You guys captured Danny Phantom?" Maddie asked, her eyes wide. "How and why? ...But mostly how."

"Uh, we needed to get him away from the area." Kelsey spoke up, messing with her hair once more. "You see, we came here because of an accident with an invention created by my grandparents, and we still aren't sure what the effects will be."

Okay, I'll admit, avoiding the direct truth and not telling a lie wasn't a half bad idea.

"Does the accident have anything to do with the hole in the Nasty Burger's wall?" Danny accused, and Kelsey tensed. Darry shot a glance at me, and we both tried to think up an excuse. Thankfully, Jazz actually covered our tracks for us.

"When were you at the Nasty Burger, Danny?" she asked, and Danny shot his sister a confused look. After that, Jack and Maddie started their tests. I caught Maddie looking at us curiously a few times, but Jack seemed to have a look to him like he was just about to pronounce us ghosts.

It wouldn't be the first time, either.

After a lot of tests, mostly involving Danny freaking out around needles and Christmas-y coloured blood, Jack and Maddie announced that they were just going to be sure that no ghosts were present in Danny's system and they brought over the Fenton Ghost Catcher. Danny tried to protest, Jazz tried to protest, heck, even Darry tried to convince them not to. Even I had heard the stories about what the Fenton Ghost Catcher had done, and actually seen it once. "Fun Danny" and "Super Danny" were just plain weird, and it was a pain when we had to help put them back together. Plus I still had creepy dreams on occasion about "Fun Danny", he was literally very disturbing. I really didn't want to go through that annoyance again, and I could tell Darry didn't want to either. Obviously, Danny and Jazz were both against it, so what excuse could there be that would convince Jack and Maddie to put the Ghost Catcher down...

"If you don't mind, I have something that'll work just fine instead of that." Kelsey announced, pulling something from her pocket. "You don't need that... uh, sorry, I don't know what it is. However, I have my No Moore Ghosts Ecto-Tracer. Two O's in the Moore."

"A what?" Jack asked, and I shot a look at Kelsey. She was smiling, and holding the Ecto-Tracer in her hand.

"We normally call it the Ecto-Tracer. It'll be able to detect a ghost or a halfa-" Kelsey started, but a gasp from Danny interrupted her.

"It'll be able to detect a ghost or a _what?_" he looked like he was trying not to panic. I exchanged a glance with Darry. Kelsey was playing with fire, we knew she was. The Ecto-Tracer was meant to home in on the Ecto-signature of Danny Phantom so that we could tell if he was near and if it was really him, not track ghosts! And more importantly, it was only meant to track _one_ halfa, but Jack and Maddie weren't even supposed to know that halfas existed yet!

...And the name she gave it was stupid. Why did she have to use my last name?

"A halfa? Whatever is a halfa?" Jazz was worse at pretending to be innocent than Darry was. Now I know where he gets his lack of skills from. "I've certainly never heard of a halfa!"

"I'd be more than happy to enlighten you, but that would be against the rules." Kelsey supplied, placing the Ecto-Tracer beside a very suspicious and confused Danny. "However, as you can see, the Ecto-Tracer is just plainly vibrating. That only means there is Ectoplasm in the area, which isn't a surprise. I'm pretty sure I'm standing in some. If the Ecto-Tracer beeps, we have either a ghost, a person being overshadowed, or possibly a halfa. Though, a halfa is unlikely, there are very few in existence. We've only met four."

"And what would you do if you found one of those?" even I could tell that Danny was trying to cover up his nervousness. "Would it involve... I don't know... ripping them apart molecule by molecule? Painful experiments?"

Darry rolled his eyes, "Wow, you're paranoid."

"I am not!" Danny protested, and I decided that now would be a good time to step in.

"Jack and Maddie, thank you for a wonderful experience, but we have to get going. Ghosts to catch, you know?" I grabbed Kelsey and Darry by their wrists and proceeded to drag them out of the lab, only to be stopped as Jack slid in front of us.

"But we haven't babbled on about ghosts together yet!" he whined, and Maddie came up beside him.

"I'm curious, what's a halfa?" all her question managed to do was cause every Fenton under the age of eighteen in the room to become very nervous and slightly annoyed.

Oh, and the Foley. It really managed to mess up the Foley.

"We can't tell you! I just said that we couldn't tell you! Did you people even listen?! No! You don't!" Kelsey shouted, and I sighed. Knowing Kelsey, she had just been noticing every little thing that went against what she felt was right and piling it up for when she exploded. This wasn't her explosion. This was her trying not to explode. But why was it directed against her future Grandparents? "Does it even bother you that your own son was just a test subject? No? In that case, goodbye." Oh, that explains some of it. Kelsey, for some reason, has a minor hero complex, a need to protect something, and a line between what's right and wrong. No one should cross that line, because Kelsey exploding can be terrifying. I've seen it once, last summer when some guy threatened her little brother, and I never want to see it again. She bent a door knob.

To this day, none of us can figure out how she did that.

"Uh, nice meeting you?" Darry tried to smooth things over as Kelsey took over the dragging, but I can't say if it worked. It probably didn't. Maddie and Jack just stared at us stunned, but allowed us to push past them. I grabbed the Fenton Thermos Mini right before we left, knowing it wouldn't be a very good idea if we left that behind.

Once we were outside, Kelsey looked like she was about to break down crying again. I rolled my eyes and turned to Darry, who was trying to get a good hold on his cousin's wrist. "Should we start running again?"

"What choice do we have?" he muttered, "Kelsey just shot down my grandparents, so no chance at a ghost portal for us. We'll just have to hide out somewhere until my dad shows his face. And by that, I mean his face _after_ he finished puberty."

"...I'm not even going to ask." I rolled my eyes, smiled, and we were running again within moments.

...Only to crash into a Techno Geek and a Goth.

Sam and Tucker.

This is starting to sound like a running gag.

"Two times!" Sam shouted, causing the three of us to cringe. How is it that Darry's dad has the ghost powers, yet his mom is more terrifying than the entire family combined? Must be a Manson thing. "That's two times! What do you have to say for yourselves?!"

Kelsey and I both turned to Darry expectantly, who in response cleared his throat before he simply said, "Oops."

Which caused me, Kelsey, and for some reason Tucker to break out laughing.

Until Sam's fist met Tucker's shoulder, that is.

"Ow! Sam!"

"Shut it, Tucker." If looks could kill, we'd all be dead from the glare Sam was giving us. "You three. I know you know. Where's Danny?"

"Home, possibly still sitting in his parents' lab." Darry answered, shrugging. "You should thank us. We made sure that there wasn't another "Fun Danny" and "Super Danny" episode."

"You gotta love my Ecto-Tracer," Kelsey added on, holding up said invention, which started to vibrate. "Oh, cool. Your friend's like that one guy where you call his name too many times and he appears."

"Bloody Mary?" Danny's voice asked as he, in his ghost form, landed beside Sam.

Many palms met many faces.

"You're an idiot," Kelsey mumbled and then added on, "a paranoid one."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"You are a paranoid idiot. I thought the message was clear." Kelsey shrugged, "Oh well. Come on guys, I want to check something out. Let's go downtown." She turned to walk away, but Danny teleported in front of her.

...I honestly did not know he could still teleport. Or would it be teleport yet?

"I'll ask this again," Danny muttered, "who are you three? Why are you here?"

Darry pulled his cousin back, "Phantom, that is none of your concern. We are here for our own reasons and our own problems. And in case you're going to ask, you more than likely cannot help us."

"Uh, Darry?" I rolled my eyes, "He could get us to a ghost portal, and to Clo- ow!" Kelsey cut me off by kicking my shin, and I toppled over in pain. "Do that again and I'll sell you out to Walker!"

"Liz, Kelsey, stop trying to kill each other." Darry groaned, "I've had enough of this. Bye, I'm going to take these two and leave before they do something stupid."

"This is coming from the guy who failed Chemistry," Kelsey muttered as I stood up, clutching my leg, "because apparently, periodic tables are for hipsters."

"O... 'kay then? Why do you need to get to a ghost portal?" Danny looked confused, but I can't say I blame him.

"To get to a ghost," Kelsey replied with a shrug, "duh."

"Would you mind saying which ghost?" Sam spoke up, crossing her arms.

Darry tensed, "Yes, we would mind. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to find a certain ghost who can get us home. Would you mind letting us pass, Phantom?"

"No problem, if you tell me what you know about halfas." Danny smirked, and Darry copied it with almost perfect accuracy. Must be a Fenton thing.

"A halfa is a human ghost hybrid. They can change between their human and ghost forms at will, though they will often revert back to their original form if they overly exhaust themselves. They can be created through cloning, extreme exposure to ectoplasm, certain ghosts giving humans ghost powers or ghosts human forms, and by birth right. A majority of the time, they turn out more powerful than other ghosts since they can absorb energy needed from their human side, thus giving them access to more powers that full ghosts. When overshadowed or anything along those lines, their human side will take the full effects while their ghost side is cast out into the Ghost Zone. However, if one side is controlled, the halfa can be controlled in both forms. While in human form, they can pass through ghost shields, are often still affected by certain ghost weapons, and can use weaker versions of some of their ghost powers. In both forms, they have weaknesses to things such as ecto-ranium and blood blossoms. Halfas are considered a scientific impossibility, yet I know of four. Also some who were halfas but lost their other form." Darry paused, "Wow that took longer than I thought it would. Liz, Kelsey, let's go."

I exchanged an alarmed look with Kelsey, but we followed Darry as he led us past a shocked Danny. I noticed Sam and Tucker were staring after us, and I started moving faster. After walking for a while in silence, I finally decided to say something.

"Well, Darry, you're an idiot."

"I'm going to agree with Liz on this one," Kelsey spoke up, "why did you spill everything you know about halfas to a halfa? More importantly, to your _dad?_"

"Hey, relax," Darry sighed as we came to a stop by city hall, "what's the worst that could happen?" he leaned back farther than should've been possible without anything to lean against. The DF charms around his neck took on a faint yellow glow. "He's a past version of my Dad, so he's on our side. It's not like he's going to come and kill us or something."

"...Darry, what're you leaning against?" so Kelsey noticed Darry's impossible leaning skills too.

"What do you...?" Darry trailed off as he looked over his shoulder, "What the heck?!" he looked as if he was about to fall over, but he placed a hand to steady himself against where nothing was, and oddly enough it worked. "Okay, that's not right."

I placed my hand beside Darry's. Where there should've been nothing, there was what felt like a wall. "This is weird. It's like there's an invisible wall. How does this...?" I trailed off when I realized that the charms I had on my wrist were glowing a faint green. "What the heck? The weird charms are glowing!"

"This is odd," Kelsey spoke up, moving her hand towards the invisible wall and then away from it. With her other hand, she had pulled the charms that were attached to her ponytail close to her face. "The charms glow green when I'm near the barrier, but when I move away, they stop glowing. I guess the glow has something to do with the wall."

"Bravo, Kelsey, I knew you'd figure it out." The one voice I really didn't want to hear called out, and the three of us turned to face Vlad Plasmius. "What do you think of those charms I supplied the trio of you with? They allow me to prevent you from leaving or entering wherever I so choose."

"I hate them," I replied, grinding my teeth, "what are you up to, Fruitloop? Why are we here?"

"Ah, all in good time Elizabeth." Vlad smirked, charging up a purple ghost ray. I scowled; I really didn't like my full name. "But for now, there's somewhere you three should be." He fired his ghost ray, and the three of us cringed...

...Only to be hit by nothing.

Vlad stayed in front of us, a look of confusion on his face. "Why didn't that hit any of you?"

I exchanged a confused look with Kelsey and Darry. Kelsey gave a small shrug and smiled, "We're ninjas."

Darry let out a small laugh and pulled out his Fenton Pistol, "Ninjas with ghost weapons. Run, Fruitloop, run."

* * *

Mark Foley, age seventeen, floated above Amity Park on his rocket sled. To most, he was the Shadow Hunter, ghost hunting apprentice of the Red Huntress. But right now, he was just Mark. He needed some time to think.

But then, who wouldn't if they had just been told that their sibling may have been sent through time? And if they hadn't, chances were that they had died?

Half an hour ago, he had received a call from his dad. Mark had feared that his father had found out about his ghost hunting, so he had landed in an alleyway and nervously answered his phone. The conversation hadn't been at all what Mark expected. Mark had expected lectures for ghost hunting, lectures for not telling his parents about it, lectures for the danger, and demands that he come home at once...

He had _not_ expected his dad to be freaking out before spilling that there had been an accident at Fenton Works, and that his sister had been caught up in his Grandparents' newest invention during it.

So Mark sat on his rocket sled, high above Amity Park. His sister was gone, trapped in a Fenton Time Machine when a ghost turned it on. His cousin Darry had been inside, too, as had been Kelsey's friend Liz. The three of them were gone. Just... just _gone._

Mark sighed, if there was anyone who would be able to help him figure out where his sister had gone, it would be one of the Phantoms. Three ghosts who had been "protecting" Amity Park for about twenty years. Well, Danny Phantom had, with Dani Phantom joining in about sixteen or so years ago and Jackie Phantom joining in thirteen years after that. It was about that time that the Red Huntress and him had been asked by the Phantoms to form a truce. Danny Phantom had apparently told the Red Huntress something hugely important, even with the fact that Mark had left in the hurry that he did from that meeting when asked to reveal his human identity, and now Mark couldn't hunt the Phantom three anymore. Well, it's not like he could hunt Dani Phantom anyway since she was somehow half human and a friend of his ghost-hunting uncle's, but whatever. Jackie Phantom owed him a favor, considering the fact that he did free her from ghost jail a few weeks ago.

That was also the time when he had inadvertently revealed to his little sister his side job as the Shadow Hunter. Amazingly, she had been perfectly fine with it. She hadn't threatened to tell their parents, lectured him about how much danger, or anything. Kelsey had said that he was one of her heroes.

Mark stood up on his sled, coming from his sister, who had once invented a fictional character when asked about her hero, there was no higher praise. He was the girl's- no, his little sister's- hero. She counted on him for protection. It had meant the world to him, and it still did. Not only that, but it made Mark sure of what he had to do; he had to get his sister back. Even if it meant working with _Jackie Phantom._

Engaging his ghost tracker, Mark began to watch it for signs of the youngest Phantom's odd Ecto-signature. He started towards Fenton Works, a smile appeared on his face as Jackie Phantom was detected.

...And then seen lying on top of the Ops center.

Why is she hanging out so close to some of the leading experts in ghost hunting? Mark shook his head to dismiss the thought, it wasn't like it mattered. He'd be more concerned if it had been one of the more powerful Phantoms.

"Well, finding you was easier than I thought it would be." Mark called, and the ghost looked up in surprise as he landed.

"Hi, Shadow Hunter," She mumbled, "Listen, this isn't a good time. Could you come back later? I… I kind of want to be alone right now."

"Aw, is the little ghosty having a bad day?" Mark cooed as he jumped off his sled and landed on the roof beside the Phantom. "Listen, ghost, I don't really care about your problems. Something has happened to someone important to me, and you're going to help me get her back."

"Oh, did the great Shadow Hunter finally get a girlfriend and mess up like the failure he is," Jackie rolled her eyes as she sat up, "or did somebody steal your cat?"

"For your information, my dad is allergic to cats." Mark shook his head, "The girl I need to find is Kelsey Foley. Judging by the fact that you Phantoms pretty much stalk the Fentons, you probably have at least heard of her. She is Danny Fenton's niece and often hangs around with Darry Fenton."

"You're looking for Kelsey?" Jackie jumped to her feet, "Red-brown hair, semi-dark skin?"

"That sounds like her," Mark cautiously allowed, slightly concerned that Jackie seemed to be able to pick his sister out in a crowd. "So, what do you say? I was planning on calling in my favor, but if you're so willing, I need you to take me to a ghost that controls time. I think my uncle mentioned one once."

"You want to go and Clockwork and Tempest...?" Jackie looked like she was trying to think, "I want to take you, I really do, but my Dad will throw a fit. He's really upset about my bro- uh, Danny Fenton's son. He was fighting a ghost and didn't realize they were in the machine before the ghost turned it on."

"Danny Phantom was there?" Mark narrowed his eyes, "Why? What business did he have with the Fentons?"

"I don't know," Jackie sighed, "but listen, I'd love to take you to Clockwork's liar, but..."

"I'll call in the favor if you won't do it on your own accord, and you remember that you said I could have you do whatever I wanted for my favor as long as it was legal." Mark cut in, "Please, Jackie, just get me to Clockwork or whatever the guy's name is. The girl I'm talking about, Kelsey, means a lot to me. She knows what I do and stands by me through it all. And her family's a wreck. I'm, uh, friends with her older brother. He's worried sick and terrified for her." For a moment, Mark wished he had gotten his sister's incredibly high grade in improv, knowing that it would make his job a lot easier.

Jackie looked down, "We'll have to move fast, Shadow Hunter. If anyone who thinks we can't do this sees us, we're toast and jam. And once we get to Clockwork's, don't touch anything unless he says you can, okay?"

"Yes!" Mark fist pumped, "Thank you, Jackie Phantom! You won't regret it! Ever!"

"I sure hope not," Jackie muttered, shaking her head as she floated up to Mark's eye level. "I'm just going to create an alibi. You should, too."

Mark picked up his phone, "Meet back here in half an hour?"

Jackie nodded, "Meet back here in half an hour."

With that, the ghost and the ghost hunter flew off their separate ways to prepare for their rescue mission.

**Torch: So, it appears that I can't write about Danny's parents "experimenting" on him. That is why I skipped it.**

**Phil: That or your horrible work ethic prevented you from writing a successful story.**

**Torch: …No… that's not why…**

**Phil: Really? Well, please explain why you have nobody to thank in this chapter, then?**

**Torch: …It's Singles Awareness Day?**

**Phil: …Yeah, whatever. To anyone reading this; please review, follow, favorite, or something while Torch still tries to figure out why she was sent a message a few weeks ago talking about how her stories are being noticed and well liked.**

**Torch: They don't appear to be either to me.**

**Phil: Just get out of your pity hole and go back to writing.**

**Torch: …I have a pity hole?**

**-Torch**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: On this random Thursday I gave to people, Chapter 4! That doesn't fit in with the tune at all.**

**Phil: Fascinating. You're still keeping up with your update schedule even though it just took you a little under a month to write one chapter.**

**Torch: I'm going to keep up my updating schedule for as long as I can, so yeah, I'm still updating every week.**

**Phil: And you're writing this Author's note on a Tuesday during your week off from school because you have no social life.**

**Torch: That's not true! I have a social life!**

**Phil: Really? What were you doing today?**

**Torch: …Trying to find a transcript for Phantom Planet because my friend is trying to write an AU of the series…**

**Phil: And did you?**

**Torch: You'd think, it being the end of the series and all, there would be at least one transcript of it somewhere on the internet and my friend would not end up eventually forcing me to re-watch the bane of my existence.**

**Phil: You just don't like that episode because of the Masters' Blasters.**

**Torch: They made Danny take his powers away, okay?! And then Danny revealed himself to the public! No, just…**

**Phil: Just what?**

**Torch: If you know it, I don't own it. Except for Infinite Hour, Stopwatch, and Hourglass. Those belong to my friend Hollyflash!**

Chapter 4;

By this point I had come to the conclusion that my friends were idiots.

It was getting dark, and we didn't have anywhere to stay, so what did we do?

We went into some rundown neighborhood and broke into someone's house, of course!

"Hey, at least there's nobody home." Darry offered for what would be at least the fifth time, and I glared at him. I hated this, and Kelsey wasn't very comfortable either. She kept her head lowered and her mouth full of chips from a bag I had found.

"Yes, because breaking into someone's house when they aren't home makes everything _so_ much better." I mumbled, and Kelsey gave a tiny nod in agreement.

"Relax, Liz," Darry sighed, "you look like an old crow when you're worried."

"I do not!" I shouted, looking myself over. "Seriously, I do not!"

"How does she look like a crow?" Kelsey mumbled, looking up. "To me, she looks like a human."

"Stop the literal trolling and go back to eating your chips," Darry muttered, and Kelsey rolled her eyes before stuffing some more bacon and cheddar chips in her mouth. As soon as Darry looked away, she opened her mouth with a "blah" to reveal the crushed up chip pieces.

"Oh, gross!" I groaned, "Kelsey, don't act like a child! We need to figure out why nobody has come to bring us home! Clockwork could've even sent Tempest or something, but still, there's nobody!"

"...That may be our fault." Darry spoke up, and I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he started to rub the back of his neck nervously, "think about it. The invisible wall, the fact that Vlad couldn't hit us no matter what he did, the glowing charms... come on girls, I can't be the only one who finds that weird."

"So what?" I frowned, "Are you saying that the charms have magical anti-ghost powers or something?"

"That's over the top even for me, Dar." Kelsey mumbled, "I know it was weird that they glowed, but I don't think they could prevent Clockwork from showing up. I honestly don't think anything could."

"Dan probably could." Darry mumbled so quietly that I almost didn't hear it. Who was Dan?

"Wait, what? Darry, who's Dan?" even Kelsey didn't know who he was. That's strange, considering that between knowing Mr. Fenton and Jaclyn's secret identities, the time she spends with her grandparents, and helping her older brother with his job, she knows the most about ghosts out of us three. It would have to be a bigger family secret than the halfas for Kelsey to not have figured it out by now. "Uncle Danny hates it when people call him Dan that I know. Who is Dan?"

"Evil," Darry muttered, "he's evil, powerful, and should not exist. Can we talk about something else?"

Okay, the depressing mood that was around the three of us was getting annoying. "Hey, I know!" I smiled, causing Kelsey and Darry to stare at me in confusion. "Okay, so we need something to get our minds off of all this, right? So, let's play a game! Kelsey, truth or dare?"

Kelsey looked up from her chips, "Is that a trick question? When have I ever chose anything besides truth?"

"She has a point there," Darry replied, stealing some of his cousin's chips.

"Fine," I rolled my eyes and asked the first question I could think of, "do you have a crush on the Red Huntress' apprentice, Shadow Hunter? I saw you flying with him after we got out of ghost jail."

As it turns out, it is possible to do a spit take with semi-chewed chips.

**XxXxX**

After that disgusting attempt at truth or dare, it was decided that we should try and get some sleep. Darry offered to sleep in the main room, while Kelsey and I took the bedrooms. I was still uncomfortable with the fact we had broken in to the person's house, and therefore found it nearly impossible to get to sleep. Plus, I was worried about my mom and dad.

I didn't normally let them cloud my thoughts, mostly because I used to get homesick as a kid. If I let Kelsey or Darry see me getting upset, well, it wouldn't be for the best. I tossed and turned until sometime after one in the morning, when I finally gave up on sleep and decided to take a walk. I left a note with the still-sleeping Darry saying when I left as a precaution, and then headed out into the night air.

Amity Park was actually really amazing at night. In this time, there was a lot less light pollution. I still couldn't really see the stars, but at least it wasn't so strangely bright. As I moved along the streets, I let my mind wander.

Had I changed anything by being in the past for this long? For all I knew, I could've erased my friends. Meeting you parents when they were your age couldn't be good for you. But what about my parents? What would happen if I met them?

I shivered, this was getting ridiculous. I just needed to clear my head and wait it out. Mr. Fenton was probably on his way to come get us right now. Yeah, in fact, I'm probably just wasting time by walking around. If I go back, and get some sleep, I'll be able to see Mom and Dad again soon.

With that thought, I came back to my senses and turned around, only to realize I had no clue where I was.

Well, fudge. This can't get much worse.

And then, as soon as I thought that, a ghost crashed down beside me. Three guesses to who it was, and the first two don't count.

"Hey, Skulker, watch where you're throwing me!" Danny called as he stood up, rubbing his head. "You almost made me hit an innocent... bystander..." he trailed off as he recognized me, "oh, it's you."

"Yeah, whatever," I shrugged, "so, fighting ghosts? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you?" Danny replied, and a rocket blew up at our feet. I fell back and let out a couple coughs at the smoke, but when it cleared the first thing I saw was Danny being held up by Skulker. The ghost looked different from when I had last saw him, which made sense considering the fact that the last time I saw him was the future.

"Where's the boy, Whelp?" Skulker was asking as I stood up, "I was told to fetch him, and that you would bring me right to him! I'm not allowed to hunt you until I find the boy so where. Is. He?!"

"I don't even know who you're talking about!" Danny answered, kicking Skulker away from him. "Just... just go away! I have more important things to worry about than helping you hunt someone so that you can get back to hunting me!"

"No, Whelp! I need to find this boy! His powers... they are a higher level than Pariah Dark's!"

"I still don't know who you're talking about! And anyway, if you're hunting him he can't be too bad!"

"I was told you would lead me to him, so start leading!"

"No! I wouldn't even if I knew who you're talking about!"

"Okay, this is weird." I mumbled, backing away. "I should probably just keep walking... yeah, bye." I turned and started to run, which didn't last long as something exploded behind me and Skulker shot me with a net.

"I have a hostage now, Whelp! So lead me to the boy!" Skulker was shouting, and Danny face-palmed. I started to mess with the net, rolling my eyes.

This is the second time this has happened to me in two days. Who in the same situation and their right mind wouldn't be irritated? Well, at least the net wasn't electrified this time.

"Skulker, one, you just caught a ghost hunter who works with two other people. They're probably going to come find you and use your suit for a footrest or something." Danny replied, and I cringed. I knew saying that we were ghost hunters would come back to haunt us. No pun intended. "Two, I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" I expected his yell to turn into a ghostly wail, and was surprised when it didn't.

"Very well, Ghost Child. No need to shout." Skulker replied, and I felt the net pulling back. My breath caught in my throat, and I turned my head slowly. Skulker lifted the net up higher, and my eyes went wide. "I'll just take the hunter and go, then."

"Wait, what?" I looked over at Skulker, which was fairly hard to do considering how much the net was constricting me, and basically started to imitate a fish. "You- no! No, don't! Danny, Mr. Fenton! I... I don't know! P-please! H-help!"

"Don't you think that me helping you would be ironic or some...?" Danny was crossing his arms when he froze, "Wait, did you... did you just call me Mr. Fenton?"

"As entertaining as it is that a fellow hunter knows both your identities," Skulker interrupted, "I'll be taking her and leaving. If I am forbidden from hunting you, someone else who hunts you should do just fine for a rug. But don't think I'll stop hunting you."

"Uh, ew," Danny replied, and I nodded.

"Yes, very much so. Now please, help me!" I paused, "Mr. Phantom! Danny! I... I still don't know what to call you! But please, hel-" I didn't finish before Skulker blasted off, leaving me screaming as I was dragged through the air. I caught sight of Danny flying after me, exchanging fire with Skulker while I kept screaming. Something exploded underneath us from a stray blast, blasting us upwards. I could barely hear anything over my own screaming, but I was aware of the fact that Danny wasn't very happy with whatever had exploded. Skulker started laughing, and the next few moments were a series that seemed to move in slow motion.

First of all, Danny was caught in a net as I stopped screaming.

Secondly, I shouted his name as the net electrocuted him.

Third, he started to fall towards the ground, looking as if he was in pain.

Fourth, a golden aura surrounded him, setting him gently on the ground while ripping the net from him.

I actually spoke in sync with Skulker when we said, well, minus a few colourful words, "What was that?!"

Moments later, the same coloured aura that had set Danny on the ground was surrounding me, and I found myself suddenly on the ground. It wasn't like I had fallen or anything, I was just suddenly... there. I looked over at Danny, hoping for an explanation.

"What just happened?" Danny asked, and gave me a confused look. Well, there goes my explanation. "When did you get out of the net?"

"When I was surrounded by gold aura." I deadpanned, and Danny raised an eyebrow.

"So it wasn't one of your ghost hunting things?"

"If it was, don't you think I would've used it sooner?"

"...True. But if it's not you, then is it one of your friends?"

I looked upwards to where blasts of gold were assaulting Skulker, knocking him around. The weird part was, I couldn't tell where the blasts were coming from. "...I don't think me or my friends have any weapons that shoot anything of that colour."

"So it's someone else?" Danny asked, standing up.

"I guess so, but I've never even seen anyone fire that kind of energy before." I answered truthfully, standing up beside him. I took a step back, about to try to find my way back to my temporary home, but decided against it when Skulker crashed into the ground. The golden energy was all around him, holding the shocked ghost in place. I stared in disbelief as what I assumed to be another ghost literally flickered into place under a streetlight a little ways away from me and Danny.

It was about Darry's height and wearing a hooded black cloak, clasped at the side with golden clip that resembled two crossed knives, so that I couldn't see its face aside from the two glowing golden eyes that seemed impossible to miss. Its arms were bare, muscular, and holding the front of the cloak open. Its exposed skin was relatively normal, if not slightly pale, and its hands were bandaged while dark blue guards were on its wrist. Covering its chest was an armless black t-shirt, and covering his legs was a pair of light gray, loose-fitting pants tied with a black martial-type belt. On its feet were black combat boots, tied together with golden laces. When it spoke, its voice had a strange quality to it, almost as if it was being suppressed and wasn't really there.

_"Skulker of the Ghost Zone, hunter of the rare and valuable..."_ I can't explain it, but the voice held a sense of power. It seemed to draw me in, and it looked like it had the same effect on Danny. _"You were tasked to find me, true? No, I will not be captured. And you..." _it reached a hand forward, which slowly became covered in golden sparks. _"I sentence you to the Ghost Zone; do not disturb me again, lest you wish a second demise."_

It turned it's hand a quarter of the way around, and the golden energy around Skulker suddenly just... well, I suppose the best way to explain it would be to say it came alive. The energy was sparking... it seemed to be laughing... and then, Skulker was gone, leaving the mysterious stranger standing under a streetlight.

_"Interesting, he poses less threat than the Box Ghost." _I could almost hear the smirk in its voice. _"Skulker's power was clearly overstate-" _the stranger's form flickered, _"oh? Very well. Liz, Phantom, do not ask who I am or what I do. I am not at liberty to tell you." _Its form flickered again, _"My time is limited. Two blocks east, there is a fire. A house with two teenagers inside. They awoke to flames, and one was knocked unconscious protecting the other. They are trapped... go... Darry and Kelsey have little... time... go... together... save... them..." _its form flickered out of sight, and it took me a moment to register what it had said.

"Darry and Kelsey... fire... trapped... oh no. My friends!" I took off running, not even bothering to check if Danny was following.

**XxXxX**

I smelt the smoke, heard the sirens, and saw the flames before I even reached the house. Once I had, my first thought was something along the lines of how am I supposed to get them out of there?

"If I go intangible and pull them out, will they try to attack me?" Danny's voice. I guess he did follow me after all. Then again, I wouldn't want to disobey that creepy golden-eyed guy either.

I didn't even bother to look over at him. "Have I?"

"Oh, right... I'll get them out," Danny promised, and I barely took notice of him flying past me. I shouldn't have left. I should be in there, with my friends...

A short scream brought me to attention, and I stared fearfully at the burning house. About a minute later, I noticed that flames along a certain path were being extinguished. I stared hopefully along at where the path seemed to be leading, and let out a cheer when Danny burst a hole in the side of the wall, leading Darry and Kelsey out as patches of ghostly ice melted behind them. Darry was leaning on Kelsey's shoulder for support, favoring his right ankle, had a trickle of blood going down the side of his face, but he was smiling. Kelsey, on the other hand, looked completely terrified, kept giving Darry confused looks, and seemed to be slightly annoyed. I rushed towards them, bypassing Danny completely and enveloping them in a hug.

"Blah! Liz!" Darry protested, and I just hugged him tighter. Kelsey let out a quiet laugh. "Please! I need air!" I let go, and took notice of Darry's smirk.

"Do I want to know?" I asked, and Darry held up the chain that held the charms Vlad had given him. "...What happened to the D charm?" though the F charm was still there, the D charm was missing. Darry held out his hand, which revealed that he was holding the charm between two of his fingers.

"Watch," he smiled, and moved the charm close to Danny, who tensed as it caused his gloves to disappear. When Darry moved the charm back to his side, Danny's gloves reappeared. The half ghost stared at his gloved hands in confusion for a moment before looking back at Darry, who's smile somehow got even bigger. "See? The charms have anti-ghost powers. I was right."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow, "I was attacked by Skulker and rescued by some guy who used golden energy, yet mine never activated."

"Golden energy?" Darry looked really interested, "Did the guy who fired it look like an assassin and keep flickering in and out of existence?"

"Okay, as interesting as this is," Danny cut in, and the three of us turned to face him. "If you three were some kind of ghost hunters, you guys would've probably re-killed me a long time ago. Who are you three, and honestly this time."

"Well, you see," Kelsey started, looking sheepish. "I'm Kelsey... Folia. The blonde is Liz Moore, which is where I ripped off the "No Moore Ghosts, two O's in the Moore" thing from. The guy on my shoulder is-"

"Darryll Fenton, though I go by Darry." Darry spoke up, and Kelsey looked horrified. I'm pretty sure that I just looked confused.

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Fenton? Really?"

"...Well, I like to say it is. Because it's either that or..." Darry shivered, "_Masters._ Blah, there is no way I'm going by Darry _Masters_."

"Masters?" Danny frowned, "Okay, do I want to know why you have to choose between that and Fenton?"

"You haven't figured it out?" Darry sighed, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to spell it out, but... I'm a clone of you. Not a very successful one, since I'm purely human, but a clone of you."

Well, I didn't see that one coming.

* * *

Tempest, who had unconsciously taken the form of a seven year old, was annoyed to say the very least.

Timeline 10-4 had multiple problems that she knew would fall on her to fix, and would take a while to fix, causing her to more than likely be absent from her job as Clockwork's Apprentice for a period of time. Clockwork had noticed that fact too, and had called in someone to take over for her while she sorted it all out. Not just any someone, one of the Alternate Dimension versions of her created by a different whatever-the-boss-of-the-Observants-was-called. At the moment, Tempest didn't care about the name of the apparently all-powerful deity.

Groaning, Tempest decided that it was best not to wonder which of them it would be and to instead look over points in Timeline 10-4 once again. She pulled up a window through time and fought the urge to face palm. Darryll Lee Fenton telling the younger version of his dad that he was not a random ghost hunter, but one of his clones. Oh boy, that just could not end well. It was kind of clever, though. Tempest had to give him that.

Adding that instance to the list of things she'd have to fix, and by fix she meant creating some random documents, Tempest moved from the past to the present and almost broke out in laughter. Daniel James Fenton-Phantom, who the last time Tempest had seen him had been trying to brutally re-murder her with his gloves, was sobbing like a little kid, as he had been from the past few hours. Then again, his son was missing thanks to Vladimir Yermolai Masters-Plasmius.

Tempest snickered. Yermolai. That was one of the funniest middle names she knew.

Back in the Real World, a name which Tempest found incredibly stupid and demeaning, Tucker Marcus Foley was trying to comfort his friend, Samantha Annabelle Manson-Fenton was trying to figure out how to get the missing people back, and Jasmine Alexis Fenton-Foley was trying to explain to young Tucker Junior Timothy Foley where his sister was. It was about as interesting as eating dirt. Though, Tempest caught part of the conversation in which it was mentioned that someone would have to explain to Star Winona Garcia-Moore and Tanon Fredrick Moore that their only daughter was missing. Oh, that would be fun! Tempest knew for sure that she'd definitely be looking into _that_!

Switching to a different area of the present, Tempest chose to skip over Madeline Susan Walker-Fenton's and Jackson Bradley Fenton's attempts at figuring out if they put a reverse switch of their Fenton Time Machine, which they hadn't, and move on to the inevitable.

Jaclyn Lilith Fenton-Phantom, in her ghost form of Jackie Phantom, and Mark Dylan Foley, under his ghost hunter persona of Shadow Hunter, were going to be paying the Clock Tower a visit within minutes so that they could time travel back and bring the missing three home.

Of course, judging by what Tempest had seen of the future that was not going to happen for a while. Although, since she was only Clockwork's Apprentice and as such was not allowed to see more than a few glimpses of the future, Tempest knew she could be interpreting it wrong.

Though, in the meantime, Tempest knew she could laugh about the fact that the two cousins who should logically be mortal enemies, had no idea of the other's secret identity, and were more than likely rivals were working together.

Of course, that was interrupted by the alarm that signaled unauthorised time travel.

Locking in on the time of the disturbance, Tempest held up her staff and bumped it against her head.

Oh, of course it was done by Golden Eyes, better known by the name Tempest had jokingly given him of Greg. Of freaking course. Mr. I-Look-Like-An-Assassin-With-Golden-Eyes-But-Can-Look-Like-Some-Freaky-Teen-So-Fear-Me-And-Stuff-While-I-Use-The-Powers-I-Magically-Stole-To-Travel, was in the wrong time, _again!_

Though, Tempest still had no clue how the kid managed to... What had Clockwork called it? Time teleporting? Something like that. Though she had no clue how he managed to time teleport since there was nobody but Clockwork in this Dimension who had that power, she had to admit that he never did anything wrong when he time traveled, and considering everything else going on right now, it would be best to ignore the mysterious time traveler for the time being and focus on those two who were to arrive in three, two, one...

"Okay ghost, are you Tempest or Clockwork?"

"Shadow Hunter, could you be any ruder?!"

"Trust me, I could go a lot worse."

"I'm Tempest, Shadow Hunter. I thought Jackie would have told you that Tempest is the girl one." Tempest rolled her eyes as she turned around, smiling at the ectoplasm blush that was on the youngest halfa's cheeks. "Heh, I'm kidding Jackie. I don't really care what you say about me considering that this is the first meeting we've ever had."

"Wait... first meeting? And, uh, you're a little kid. How is a kid going to help us?" Shadow Hunter, who Tempest decided on calling Hunter for short, pointed out her current form which caused Tempest to groan and smack her staff on her head once more.

"I look like that sometimes. I don't really feel like switching forms, so you get this one." She shrugged and twirled her staff, deciding to completely ignore his first question. "So, you guys want to time travel, huh?"

"Um, yeah..." Jackie seemed nervous. "Uh, where's Clockwork?"

"Fetching some hired help," Tempest shrugged, "the three time travelers are messing up the balance, so I'll have to go fix it because my Master isn't supposed to interfere with the Timelines, which will leave the other Timelines in danger... yep, fun. I guess I get the bad luck because my name basically means bad storm."

"The other Timelines?" Hunter interrupted. Tempest opened her mouth to explain, but Jackie beat her to it.

"Tempest and Clockwork look after a bunch of different Timelines. Each of them is slightly different. In the one that Tempest showed my dad, the present was about twenty years ago and he wore a cape."

"Thank you, JLFP." Tempest smiled, "I see you've perfected not mentioning DLF in that story even though he's the one who I actually sent there."

"...I don't get it." Hunter was probably raising an eyebrow behind his mask. "JLFP? DLF? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Uh, those are just nicknames Tempest thought up!" Jackie sounded nervous, and Tempest felt a smile tugging the corner of her lips.

"Yeah, sure, why not? They're abbreviated nicknames. And no, I will not tell you who DLF is." Shrugging, the Time Apprentice called power from her core and transformed into her teenage form. "I'll just go get some things, and then we'll be off!" she smirked as she caught Hunter seemingly checking her out, "Like what you see? Necrophilia must be a wonderful pastime." Jackie snickered as Hunter looked appalled. "Ah, I'm just kidding! I like this form more, too. It fits me better. I'll grab some things, okay? Don't touch anything!" flipping up her cloak's hood, Tempest flew towards her chambers. Grabbing two of her medallions, her staff's holster, and three of Clockwork's medallions, Tempest was just about to fly back to Jackie and Hunter when...

_CRASH!_

Reverting back to her little kid form in shock, Tempest turned to face the direction where the sound had come from. After a moment, she heard a scream.

Tempest knew that if she had a beating heart it would be pounding. A scream in the Master of Time's Lair? There were only a few things that could mean, and none of them were good. Flicking her staff, Tempest teleported herself back to the main room. Jackie and Hunter were staring at a corner, where a thin line of smoke was coming from a broken thermos...

Oh.

Oh _no_.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Why did Clockwork keep that one out in the open? Why, why, why?!

"I told you not to touch anything!" Tempest called with her eyes wide as she zoomed forward and pulled the two of them back. "Oh no, where is he? Please tell me that was just a fake thermos. Please, _please_ tell me that's all it was."

"Hello, Tempest."

Darn it. Gosh flippin' darn it.

She was going to re-die.

Turning around, Tempest felt her eyes grow wide. Of all the ones it could've been, it was _that one._

It was Dan Phantom from Timeline 10-7. One of the few Dans who knew that she helped Clockwork, and the Dan who she had sent Darryll Lee Fenton to help fight because she had learned that the teenage Daniel James Fenton-Phantom wouldn't be able to do it alone.

Well, fudge.

In other words; Tempest was sure she was doomed. However, that didn't mean this Dan had to know it.

"Dan," Tempest greeted the ghost curtly, "you're out of your thermos, I see. That is against the laws of the Observant High Council. I'll have to punish you, you know. Another thousand years should do the trick." Holding up her staff, Tempest started to say goodbye to her afterlife. Fighting one of the Dans? Suicide. But she had to do it that was for sure. Her only chance otherwise was for Clockwork to get back, and even then, the Observants would end him if Clockwork ever actually fought one of the Dans.

"Hey Jackie, he looks kind of like your dad." Hunter spoke up, and Tempest fought back a wince. If this Dan figured out who Jackie was, well... it would be bad, to say the least.

"What's this? A young Phantom. How cute." 10-7 Dan stared at Jackie with a creepy smile, "Hello there, care to introduce yourself?"

"Uh, no, she doesn't!" Tempest broke in, floating in front of the young halfa. "Neither of them are going to introduce themselves to you, so don't even try!"

10-7 Dan just smirked and placed a hand on Tempest's head, "They might not, but you will."

"What is that supposed to-" Tempest cut herself off as a feeling overcame her body that was unlike anything she had ever experienced, other than the tension in her mussels which prevented her from moving, that wasn't too strange. She felt like someone was moving around in her mind, looking at her private thoughts, her memories, the knowledge she had required about time...

"Jaclyn Lilith Fenton. Also known as Jackie Phantom. Current age; ten. From Timeline 10-4." Dan's voice seemed to say, but his mouth didn't move. "Father; Daniel James Fenton. Also known as Danny Phantom. Current age; thirty-six. From Timeline 10-4. Mother; Samantha Annabelle Manson, now Fenton. Current age; thirty-six. From Timeline 10-4. Sisters; none. Brothers; one. Darryll Lee Fenton. Current age; fifteen. From Timeline 10-4. Oh, this is perfect!"

Dan removed his hand, and Tempest slumped to the ground, feeling drained. "What... what is this? What did you do to me?!"

"Something I learned while in confinement," Dan smirked, "it allows me to learn all I want by looking into another's mind. It does seem to drain them a little, though."

"How did you learn that while you were in a thermos?!" Tempest tightened her hold on her staff, ready to use it as a weapon, but the only reply Dan gave her was a smirk. Tempest felt rage bubble up inside her, not just at Dan, but at the similarities of the smirk and that of a _certain_ Alternate Dimension version of her. Infinite Hour was a cocky annoyance, whose smirk was creepily similar.

Well, Chaos was too, but at least he didn't try to weasel his way into her group of friends. Stopwatch and Hourglass had welcomed Infinite Hour into their circle the first time they met him. Tempest had spent ten years trying to make friends with the Alternate Dimension versions of Clockwork's Apprentices, and Infinite Hour earned friends the second he showed up!

Wait, bad Tempest! She mentally shook her head as she scolded herself, why are you thinking about Infinite when there's a powered-up Dan in front of you?!

"Okay, ghost, I don't know who you are or what's going on," Hunter entered the conversation, "but the longer this goes on, the more time my rescue mission has to wait! You may have the symbol that identifies you as a Phantom, but you weren't there when the truce was set in, meaning I have every right to kick your butt!" he pulled out a weapon and lunged towards Dan, only to be stopped by the same trick that Tempest had fallen for.

"Shadow Hunter, be careful!" Jackie called, diving forward, only to be knocked back by a ghost ray. Hitting a wall, Tempest watched in horror as a halo of white light appeared around the halfa's midsection. Reacting on impulse, Tempest tossed her staff towards Jackie, causing a black dome to appear around her when it landed. Feeling her remaining power drain, Tempest collapsed, hoping that would be enough to protect the young Phantom.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, an oddity for the Time Master's Apprentice, but after a while Tempest could hear someone shouting at her. She forced her eyes open, and groaned at the sight in front of her.

Of all the Alternate Dimension versions of Tempest there were, Clockwork had to go and choose the most inexperiencedand cocky one of all. Plus, he had ripped off her cloak idea, even if his was white while her's was blue.

"Tempest! Are you okay?! What happened?!" oh yeah, and another point against Infinite Hour was that he was _so_ annoying!

To say the least, Tempest was very much annoyed. Her staff was missing, Jackie Phantom and Shadow Hunter could be in any of the Timelines, a Dan was loose, she knew she was about to be forced to work with the annoying and cocky Infinite Hour, and Clockwork hadn't told her that this would happen.

To say the most, as soon as this was all over Tempest was going to be using a thermos as a maraca.

**Torch: Chapter 4 and the title character finally has an actual appearance. Well, that worked out.  
**

**Phil: You know, I find it strange that one moment you're complaining about your friend and the next your using three of her characters and her Alternate Dimensions theory.**

**Torch: Well, Infinite Hour fits in the plot and I felt like it would be a good idea to mention the other Time Apprentices. Plus, the Alternate Dimension theory I'm using, which still needs to be added onto my profile, to create an army was created with Infinite Hour as the central character. By using this theory, it also made sense to use the character that is the reason it was created. **

**Phil: …What?**

**Torch: On another note, there's a very amazing author who everyone reading this should check out. Her account name is Spectral Angel, so go read her stories. Go, shoo.**

**Phil: Wait for it…**

**Torch: Oh, wait! Thanks to **_**princessbinas **_**for favoriting and following this story, **_**Diana Lily**_** for reviewing, and **_**Hollyflash **_**for reviewing!**

**Phil: There it is.**

**Torch: Please review, follow, or favorite. It'll be very much appreciated!**

**-Torch**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: …**

**Phil: Hello, Phil here. Torch appears to be hiding, probably because she gave up on her updating schedule. It took her a month to write this chapter, and then another week when she decided to add on Danny's point of view at the end. I personally think he's completely out of character, and Torch has been smiling like an idiot all day saying she "broke Danny."**

**She's weird, okay?**

**If you know it, Torch doesn't own it. Now excuse me while I go try to find her.**

Chapter 5;

"Guys, I just have a quick question. _How_ exactly did that house blow up?"

Kelsey and Darry shrugged, and I rolled my eyes. "You guys are _so_ informative."

"Well, I honestly didn't know that it exploded." Kelsey replied, "I thought it just... you know... spontaneously combusted."

The three of us were currently sitting in the past Fenton Works Ops Center while Danny caught up on his sleep. We'd promised we would tell him everything after he got some sleep and Darry was patched up. He had reluctantly agreed, mostly because he was still shocked from Darry's "revelation," and brought us up to the Fenton Works Ops Center. Now Darry was holding a bag of ice to his ankle and we were trying to get our story straight.

Well, and talking about the house that burnt down.

"Nope, it exploded." I confirmed, "I got blasted up into the air by something, and that was it."

"Before we get even more off topic," Darry cut in, opening up his bag of now-melted ice and splashing the cold water on his face. "I have the basics for a cover story. Here's what we say; Liz, Kelsey, about a year ago you guys went you went with Liz's parents to Vlad's mansion when he invited them for a business deal. There you found me and another clone; a female named Jaclyn. You two set us free and accidently found out Vlad was a halfa when he tried to put us back, claiming we were incomplete. Kelsey called him a Fruitloop, Jaclyn blasted him, and we left. Kelsey got me and Jaclyn to live with her, considering the fact that her parents looked after a bunch of other foster children. We had been there for a few months when a "mysterious person" donated a bunch of technology. Everyone else thought of it as a gift, but I realized that there had been a ghost there. At school few days later we were attacked by Vlad. Vlad let it slip that he wouldn't give up until he got me and Jaclyn back. A week later, some of the "gifted" technology blew up and I got blamed for it. Jaclyn basically told me that I was ruining her life, and that I should just leave. Which I did, but you two came after me. Liz, you managed to convince me to go back, but when we did Kelsey's house was on fire. Nobody got out, and the cause was determined to be faulty wiring in the gifted technology. We figured it was Vlad and that he wasn't going to give up trying to harm us, so we ran for our lives. After a couple weeks of being on the run, we were starving, so we weren't in any shape to defend ourselves when Vlad showed up again. We were captured, but instead of trying to kill us, we basically became his pawns. He trained us to fight ghosts and tried to study me because I wouldn't melt into ectoplasm. He gave us these charms so that he could create invisible walls that prevented us from entering certain areas. But one night, we escaped, took weapons that Vlad had created from Fenton blueprints, and ended up in Amity Park. After that, we go with what happened when we arrived. Is that good?"

There was a moment of awkward silence before Kelsey said, "In other words; Asher and Kya's backstory from _Saving_?"

Darry rolled his eyes, "Yes, Asher and Kya's backstory from book four of _Going Ghost! _but with Liz worked in, and Jaclyn will not be magically working with Vlad Masters like Amy was with Frank Lewis."

"Good," I sighed, "I was beginning to think your Mom was rubbing off on you."

"Um, ew." Kelsey shuddered, "I really did not need that mental picture."

Darry twitched, "...No. Just... no. So, new topic; what time is it?"

"Just after ten in the morning; Danny's still asleep."

The three of us turned to see Jazz, just standing at the entrance. She was staring at us, and I cringed.

Oh, this wasn't going to go very well.

"Uh... hi?" Darry spoke up, waving. "You, um, wouldn't happen to have any food, would you?"

In spite of everything, I almost started laughing at that. Asking for food, more proof that Darry's a typical teenage boy.

"I'll bring you up some later." Jazz paused, and looked the three of us over. "I did hear you talking yesterday. I don't know exactly how you managed to convince my brother to bring you here, but I do know that you probably lied to get it. I'll ask again; how far in the future are you three from?"

"...Um, do you have a calendar?" Kelsey asked, standing up. "Because, well, we don't know the exact date..."

"There's one over there," Jazz pointed to the far side of the Ops Center, and Kelsey made her way over to it.

There was a pause, and then, "_Holy mother of Clockwork!_ Twenty-one years, three months! Oh my gosh... guys... we're twenty-one years and three months in the past..."

"So you guys are from the future, aren't you?" Jazz asked, smiling. "Knew it. But why are you in this time, anyway?"

Darry frowned, "I'm kind of surprised that we haven't created a temporal imbalance yet..."

"Well, Jazz," I spoke up, using her nickname. It honestly felt really weird to say. "That's simple. Vlad was being creepy and Darry thought that the Fenton Time Machine would give him ghost powers."

"Hey, it was powered by ectoplasm and electricity!" Darry replied, "Logically, it should've!"

"It wasn't a defective Fenton Portal, Darry!" I shot back, "And you are not your dad!"

"You two forgot someone, didn't you?" Kelsey spoke up, and the two of us looked over at Jazz. "So, yeah. Please don't tell Danny. We really would rather not be killed by Clockwork."

"Fenton Time Machine?" Jazz asked after a quiet moment, "Really?"

"Hey, it's your parents who aren't very creative, not ours." I replied. Kelsey and Darry exchanged a small smile, probably because they found a reference or something in what I had said. We all stayed where we were for a moment, and then Danny entered the room.

"Hey everyone, I..." he stopped, "uh, hi Jazz. So, uh, I see you met..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and Darry rolled his eyes.

"Darryll, though I go by Darry." He stepped forward, and offered his hand to Jazz. "A fully human clone of your brother created by Vlad Fruitloop-Plasmius-Masters. The blonde is Liz, one of my best friends, and the brunette is Kelsey, I'm basically her adopted brother."

"Whoa, wait, what?" Jazz took a step back, "You're a _clone _of Danny?! But I thought-"

"Yeah, sorry about what we said before." Kelsey broke in, attempting to replicate her nervous twitch. "We weren't sure if Danny could help us, and we only arrived here by accident... I started spewing the first things I thought of, which was to make us ghost hunters. Darry went along with it, as did Liz."

"Yeah, we're sorry." I added on, "But anyway, we have all agreed that we are starving. So, breakfast?"

"Oh, right!" Danny nodded, and changed into his ghost form. "My parents are out chasing ghosts and my friends will be here in about ten minutes. Until then, I'll grab something." He flew intangibly through the floor, and then Jazz turned to face us, one eyebrow raised.

"Okay, start explaining. This time with real names and the truth." She crossed her arms, and Kelsey winced. I shot my friends a look and noticed that they looked guilty, and I sighed.

"I'm Liz Moore, I think you might know my mom, her name is Starlet Garcia. Kelsey is Kelsey Foley, her dad is Tucker Foley. And of course, we have Darry Fenton. Your brother's son. And yes, he actually is a full human. His little sister is a halfa, though. We actually did come here because of the fact that Vlad Plasmius locked us in the Fenton Time Machine and turned it on. Our main goal is to wait it out until Darry's dad comes to bring us back. In the future, your brother is very over protective." I shrugged, "Then again, if I had a bunch of ghosts going after my family and I was the most able to fight them, I'd probably end up very overprotective, too."

"And the fact that Darry's not a halfa doesn't help in the least, 'cause all the ghosts think he is even though Uncle Danny keeps telling them that he isn't." Kelsey added on, and Darry cringed slightly.

Why do we have to keep bringing up Darry's full-human status? I know he doesn't like it.

"Hey, I'm back!" Danny's voice called as he came up through the floor, a few boxes in his arms. "Apparently we have muffins and power bars, plus I found a few juice boxes. Eat up!" he changed back to his human form and set the food on ground. Darry was staring blankly at the muffins, and I knew that Kelsey would be making her very poor joke in a few moments.

"Hey, Darry," Kelsey elbowed her cousin, "Will you be eating mooffins in your sleepers?"

"You just can't let that die, can you? I wasn't thinking right!" Darry replied, rolling his eyes. I shook my head and reached for the muffins, my friends were weird in their own right that was for sure.

"Are there any chocolate chip mooffins?" Kelsey asked, laughing, and Darry facepalmed.

"Just let it die! I had a cold!" he called, and everyone besides me and him broke out into muffled laughs.

Darry wasn't laughing because of the obvious fact that the joke was about him, and I wasn't laughing because Kelsey's old and overused joke made me miss my family even more.

**XxXxX**

I think that the past version of Darry's mom has a grudge against us.

All throughout Darry's "explanation" of how we got here, she would not stop glaring at us. I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Sam Manson, even when she's around twenty years younger than the Mrs. Fenton I got to know, is _scary._

"...And then Danny brought us here." Darry finished, taking a deep breath. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one." Sam announced, crossing her arms. "Why do your "charms" just change Danny back to his human form?"

"We don't know," Kelsey answered, "like Darry said, we didn't even know they had anti-ghost powers until Vlad tried to hit us and whatever happened, he couldn't."

"And then I shot at him. Multiple times." Darry added on, twirling his Fenton Pistol around a finger. "Oh how I love my gun."

"Can I see it?" Tucker asked, and Darry nodded before handing him his Fenton Pistol. "Oh, dude! This thing could be a real gun!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't point it at real people," Kelsey muttered dryly as Sam pulled the gun from Tucker's hands and smacked the back of his head.

"What does that tracer thing you have really do?" Danny asked, and Kelsey pulled her Ecto-Tracer out of her pocket.

"The Ecto-Tracer? Oh, um... we don't actually know..." she blushed, and I rolled my eyes. Of course we didn't know, yet in reality knew, that it was meant to detect and track abnormalities in Danny Phantom's Ecto-Signature. "We just grabbed random weapons before we left, and that was with them."

"Okay..." Danny frowned, "What about that ghost Skulker was telling me to lead him to? Who was he?"

"If he has golden eyes and looks like some weird assassin then he might be Golden Eyes," Darry replied, "but if not, then I have no clue. Did he use yellow-ish ecto-blasts?" me and Danny nodded, "Okay, then it's probably Golden Eyes. He's one of the ghosts with the abilities to "borrow," per say, another's powers. He also apparently took his look from another ghost, but that I'm not sure of. ...I also think he took the ability to time teleport, but I can't imagine who he got it from..."

Okay, I'm just going to assume he knows all of that because of his Dad's Ghost Files.

"You sound like you know him," Sam accused, and Darry shrugged.

"He had an encounter or two with Kelsey's uncle. Are there any more questions?" okay, looks like I was right. Golden Eyes is from Mr. Fenton's Ghost Files. When nobody replied to Darry's question, he nodded. "Okay, good. So, now what?"

"We kick Vlad's butt," Danny replied, his right fist connecting with his left palm, "The Fruitloop has cloned me three times, at least. He burned down Kelsey's home, and for whatever reason made it so Liz can't go home. That is unforgivable. I'll contact Frostbite and the others of the Far Frozen, Dora the dragon ghost, Pandora, Cujo, Wulf, and I'll see Clockwork about finding Danielle. She's my other clone. Maybe we can get Johnny 13 and Kitty on our side, I think they owe me a favor, and Amorpho might help. I'll even see if I can get my parents and the Red Huntress, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to. We'll think up a plan once we know who's on our side."

...Ah, crud. Well, we're going to be creating a temporal imbalance.

"Sounds good to me," Darry smirked and I rolled my eyes. Tempest and Clockwork were going to kill us for this. "Just make sure you let me know when you plan on going, so that we can come with you."

...Okay, judging by the silence and the looks that were exchanged between Sam, Tucker, and Danny that's not going to fly.

"What?" Darry, of course, suddenly became very clueless. "Do I have something in my teeth? Was there food colouring in my breakfast that is now on my teeth? Kelsey..."

"I did nothing!" Kelsey replied, holding up her hands in surrender. "And besides, last time it was TJ and Jaclyn!"

"Darry..." Danny sighed, "don't take this the wrong way, but..."

"You can't go into the Ghost Zone because Danny thinks his enemies will go after you and that he won't be able to protect you." Tucker broke in and I shook my head.

"Well, that was blunt."

Kelsey snickered, "It's probably ironic in some way."

"Oh, I get it," Darry mumbled, standing up, "this is because I'm fully human, isn't it? Danielle can take care of herself; Jaclyn can take care of herself; but me? Oh no, fully human, so I must be oh-so-_defenseless._" I noticed a look of pure anger appear on Darry's face as he stormed past Sam, pulling his Fenton Pistol out of her hands as he went. "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back eventually. Computer, one to the kitchen." The transport-tube-thingy appeared, pulling Darry out of the Ops Center.

For a moment, the room was silent, and then Kelsey sighed. "I would say we should go get him, but I kind of would rather not have my head bit off."

"Geez, is he always like that?" Tucker asked, groaning. "It's like a moody cross between the lovebirds."

"We aren't lovebirds!" Danny and Sam replied, perfectly in sync. Kelsey and I probably would've snickered at the irony, but at the moment I'm pretty sure what had just happened with Darry was concerning us both.

"The last time I saw him act like that was when Jaclyn told him to stay home because the outside was too dangerous." Kelsey muttered, leaving out the fact that Amity had been slightly overrun by ghosts at the time. "He then managed to get us into the Ghost Zone in an attempt to prove he could take care of himself, Jaclyn went crazy trying to find us, and we all got thrown in ghost jail."

"You left out the part where you said trust me and then called Walker a useless turd." I added on under my breath, though Kelsey didn't seem to notice and continued on.

"You have to understand, Darry... he hates not having ghost powers. He hates being reminded of it because he thinks it makes him a disappointment; a mistake. I'm just as guilty as the next person for bring his human status up, but at least I'm trying not to do it so much. If he's babied, he'll only rebel and do what you're trying to stop him from doing. Be it ghost hunting, something illegal, or wandering off on his own. He hasn't been hurt worse than a cut or a bruise yet. Just because he doesn't have powers doesn't mean he can't look after himself." She shook her head, and I gave her a small smile. What do you know; she pays more attention than I give her credit for. "Danny, you should probably go into your parents' lab and apologize before Darry finds another way into the Ghost Zone."

His eyes widened as he fazed through the floor, Tucker and Sam sighing before they used the tube-thing to follow. Leaving me, Kelsey, and Jazz just quietly sitting on the floor.

"You know," Jazz finally broke the silence, "I think I know what he meant when he said even in the past he can't get out of Danny's shadow. He was talking about the ghost powers factor, wasn't he?"

"Yeah," I replied, "no matter how many times the ghosts are told, they always go after him. And Mr Fenton's fangirls and fanboys heard the rumor of Danny Phantom having a son, so there's that in case he ever does suddenly develop ghost powers, and then the fact that every male Fenton in the history of Fentons has had something to do with the supernatural. Darry... he wants to be a pilot."

"A pilot for the air force," Kelsey added on, a sad look on her face. "Remember? He said he wanted to protect his country from human threats because there was little he could do against the ghostly ones."

"He sounds like he's under a lot of pressure from what everyone expects him to be, so he chose to take a path towards what he thinks would earn him respect." Jazz replied, folding her hands in her lap. At once I was reminded of the school psychiatrist she would become. "I think he needs to come to the terms with the fact that he can't please everyone, and..." she was cut off by the sound of something exploding, "...and he shouldn't be making bombs in my parent's basement."

I believe it took about three minutes for Kelsey to stop laughing.

**XxXxX**

"Hey, Darry," I greeted, coming up beside him. After his outburst he had gone to sit on top of the Ops Center, completely ignoring everyone. A few hours later, Danny had gone somewhere with Sam and Tucker while Jazz and Kelsey started a conversation that I wasn't nearly smart enough to follow.

Our second day in the past was halfway over, and I hated it. Mr. Fenton should've come to pick us up by now.

"Hi, Liz," Darry replied, patting the ground- roof? Aw, whatever- beside him. "Come sit."

I did as he had asked and cleared my throat, "So..." he raised an eyebrow, "how's life?"

My question earned me a snicker, "Well, I'm in the past with my cousin and my best friend, I just spazzed at the past version of my dad, who by the way has school tomorrow so we won't be able to go into the Ghost Zone, I'm completely useless, I'm just waiting to be rescued like some damsel in distress, I blew up my grandparent's lab, well part of it, Golden Eyes the creep who calls me his young Lord is here, oh, and I'm pretty sure I sat in water. My life is just plain _peachy._"

"It actually didn't sound that bad," I supplied, smiling. "You've had worse days. What about the time Jaclyn let Fright Knight out and Kelsey's mom told us the only way to save the people his sword had hit was to throw the rotten pumpkins at him, and TJ dropped about half of them on you? What about when "Fun Danny" decided to have a disco party at our school, on our lunch table? What about the time-"

"Okay, okay," Darry sighed, "I get your point. The disco party was mortifying."

For a moment we just sat, watching the sky, before I finally got the courage to ask. "Darry?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you say you were a clone? I mean, with Kelsey on our side, we could've probably came up with something else to say."

Darry scoffed, "Yes, Miss _Folia_ was a wonderful help." He sighed, "I don't really know... I mean, you found out the Danielle was a clone of my dad during the first time we met Vlad, right? What did you think they were before then?"

"Well..." I paused. From what I had seen, Danny and Dani Phantom had always seemed like... "They seemed like siblings. Is that why you said you were his clone? You wanted him to think of you as a sibling and not a son?"

"I guess," Darry replied, shrugging, "maybe it was something like that. I don't really know."

"Darry, your dad is just as protective of you and Jaclyn as he is of Danielle. But, whatever, you'll have it all figured out by the time we get home," I replied, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Until then, we'll keep up with your idea. Come on; let's go get something to eat. You must be starving."

I led him back inside, completely unaware of a teenager in a black hoodie who had been watching us from the ground. As we left, he flipped up his hood, shadowing everything on his face except for his glowing gold eyes. We missed his fanged smirk, and his mumble of, "And now it begins, young lord."

* * *

Dani Phantom flew above Amity Park, enjoying the free feeling of flight. Ever since she had joined up with Danny to become the second of Amity's ghostly heroes, she was much more willing to act like the child she had missed out on being. Waving to some teenagers on the ground, Dani then swooped downwards...

...Right through the windshield of a car.

Thanking her intangibility, Dani slowly sat up. She found herself in the back seat, the driver of the car having pulled to the side of the road in panic.

Dani put on an innocent smile, "Oh, hi Jazz. Where are you going?"

"Danielle!" Jazz shouted, "You just went through my windshield and all you can say is hi?! Why aren't you answering your phone?! Danny's been trying to contact you since yesterday!"

"I've been out patrolling for hours, plus I think my phone died sometime yesterday morning." Dani replied, blinking innocently. "Guess what? We apparently we have a Sewer Ghost now. Oh yeah, and Danny should know that Jackie's at my house, though. And Mark's still hanging out with Valerie. They're..." Dani paused, trying to compromise what the youngest halfa and the Red Huntress had asked her to say, "going to be spending the weekend with me and Val. Jackie for relaxation and Mark to do paperwork. Poor kid. So, why was Danny trying to call me? Jackie seemed upset when I saw her." It wasn't a lie; Jaclyn had looked like she had only recently finished crying and seemed very determined. Dani had decided that she would honour what Jackie had asked; the little girl had definitely needed to do something.

And then there was the fact that she had been asked to say that Mark Foley was doing paperwork all weekend with his boss, Valerie Grey, when he wasn't even at their house.

Dani was over a hundred percent sure she was missing something here.

Jazz sighed, "There was an accident with one of my parent's inventions."

"Is everyone okay?!" Dani burst in, gripping the seat in front of her.

"...No," Jazz whispered, "Darry, Kelsey, and their friend are gone..."

"_Gone?!_" Dani leaned forwards, "What do you mean, gone? Are they like dead gone or missing gone or gone gone or what?!"

"We're hoping it's just missing gone," Jazz muttered, "Danny's beating himself up. Plasmius put the three kids in my mom and dad's new Fenton Time Machine and turned it on. Danny's blaming himself; he thinks he could've saved them. I was on my way to tell Elizabeth's parents what had happened. Danny keeps putting it off, so the job fell to me. I'm surprised that her parents haven't called me to ask where she is yet."

Dani frowned, "Plasmius? Oh, that's bad. Now I know why Jackie was so upset. Good luck with the parents, Jazz. Give me a call if you need any back up. I should probably be going now, I don't want to miss dinner time, or Valerie might forget to cook anything."

"Have Jackie call Danny! He's really worried!" Jazz called after Dani as she flew out of the car, but the halfa only waved her hand to signal that she knew. Dani shot home, ducking through her bedroom window and changing back to her human form. She ran down to the main room, turned right out of it, and threw open the first door on her left.

Valerie's private study; otherwise known as the ghost hunting room.

"Dani!" Valerie shouted, jumping up and using her body to shield the computer screen she had been looking at. "I... I didn't hear you come in! How was your patrol?"

"Val, the truth, _now._" Dani took a step towards her best friend, "Why do I have to say Mark's staying with us? He's not."

"Why do we have to say Jackie's staying with us when she's not?" Valerie replied, and Dani groaned.

"Don't you dare turn this around! Jackie has ghost powers; she can take care of herself! What can Mark do, file papers? I need to know, Valerie!" she frowned, "His parents are already missing their daughter, okay?! She was caught in a time machine with her cousin and friend because of _Vlad!_"

"She's missing? Because of Vlad?" Valerie blinked in surprise and then a look of realization crept onto her face. "...I get it. That might have to do with why I lost the signal."

"Signal?" Dani crossed her arms, "Val, what signal?"

The Red Huntress paused, "If I tell you, you can't tell anyone you know, okay?"

"Okay," Dani nodded, "now, spill. What signal and how does this relate to Mark?"

"...Mark's the Shadow Hunter and not just my assistant. He said he needed me to cover for him while he checked something out." Valerie answered, quickly. "I hacked into his suit's tracker, but it died sometime last night. Dani, that suit has backup generators for it's backup generators. It doesn't just die."

"So Mark's the Shadow Hunter? That explains a lot, actually." Dani replied, shaking her head. "If the tracker has so many backup generators, then why did it die? Was it out of range?"

"No, the signal was really strong before it died." Valerie shook her head, "And that was when they were in the Ghost Zone! I've been trying to get the signal back since I lost it, but I just can't!"

"They were in the Ghost Zone? Val, they could've been sucked into a natural portal."

"The closest thing his suit detected to that was a surge of ecto-energy right before the signal disappeared. The weird part is that its signature was like a cross between your cousin's and Plasmius'."

"That doesn't sound right at all." Dani frowned, "Danny and Plasmius? Why would those two ever team up if the world didn't depend on it?"

Valerie shook her head and moved to reveal her computer. She pressed a button, muttering, "This is from his suit's audio recorder. Listen to this voice."

There was the sound of someone freaking out, and then, "You've protected her? Pitiful. The young hybrid, my daughter, should be able to take care of herself. Very well, Tempest. These two are your problems now. I'll be off to find the boy now, ta-ta!"

Dani took a step back, "What in the name of Pariah Dark was that?! It sounded like Danny... but it also sounded evil... oh no, Danny..." she paused, "I'm going to go get him. Stay right here, Valerie, I'll-" she stopped as she breathed a breath of cold air, "-apparently be taking care of the ghost. But after that I'm going to get Danny."

Turning to her ghost form, Dani shot intangibly upwards, looking around for the ghost.

"You must be Danielle... my "cousin." How quaint."

Hearing the voice that Valerie had recorded, Dani turned, half expecting to find Danny.

Instead, she found a ghost wearing her cousin's uniform but with a cape instead of a trench coat, blue skin, flaming hair in a ponytail, pointed ears, red eyes, and fangs. He appeared to be in his twenties, and something about him caused Dani to shiver despite the fact that he seemed to be producing heat.

Oh boy, a Fire Core.

She hesitated barely a moment before before pressing a button on the back of Fenton Phone that was currently in her right ear and triggering the emergency beacon.

Danny could wallow in his self-pity some other time. There was no way in the Ancients' name that she was going to deal with this herself.

* * *

Daniel Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, was a wreck.

The thirty-six-year-old hybrid sat alone in the lab he had built in his home. He was beyond sick with grief, worry, and fear.

That alone was troubling.

But he couldn't keep his thoughts away from the most recent accident at Fenton Works. What if the Fenton Time Machine completely destroyed the three children who were in it? What if it didn't, and they actually were in the past? Oh no, what if they-

"Emergency beacon triggered." Danny's thoughts were interrupted by a mechanical voice, and he looked up. He so did not want to deal with this right now... "Engaging trackers to locate the source; Danielle Phantom."

Where there had once been an empty wall, a map suddenly appeared. A flashing red light was visible on one part of it, and Danny stood up slowly.

"Computer, engage audio transmission with Danielle Phantom's Fenton Phones." He muttered, sighing. What could Dani have gotten herself into that caused her to trigger her emergency beacon? Fright Knight better not be back... Danny didn't think he could deal with that right now. He wasn't even sure if he could deal with Box Lunch or that weird Soup Ghost in his current state.

After what had happened to his son, niece, and their friend he had forced himself to come back to his house and monitor his central control for rouge ghosts. He had already gone into the Ghost Zone to see if he would be allowed entrance to Clockwork's lair.

Needless to say, Clockwork obviously didn't want to see him, only digging the pity hole Danny had dug for himself even deeper.

And the others... they weren't much better than Danny was. Sam was spending the night at Fenton Works in case his parents found anything. Tucker was more than likely sitting in his daughter's room, playing with the girl's rabbit and his youngest son. Jazz... she'd probably gone off to let Elizabeth's parents know what had happened. She seemed to have the most faith out of all of them that the three teens would be returned home in one piece. And his parents... Danny knew his parents had more than likely spent every moment since _Plasmius_ had done that machine on trying to find a way to undo it.

It was worse than when he had his "accident."

"Audio transmission engaged," the mechanical voice spoke up once more, "now playing audio transmission."

"You know me?" Dani's voice asked, sounding confused. "...You look like my cousin Danny. Only... there's some differences..."

"There's a reason I look like him," The voice wasn't Dani's, and Danny balled his fists as he heard it. With everything already happening, there was now this? Why?! Why, Clockwork, why! "I _am _him."

Wait... _Clockwork! _Of course!When Danny had seen him last, he had mentioned something about what had transpired catching up to him in time... granted, it had been a few years ago and right after Tempest had all but kidnapped his son for a weekend to help an Alternate Timeline with something that Danny would've prefered for his child not to know about and Clockwork had given him a weird looking rock to keep with him for some odd reason, but Danny did his best to remember everything Clockwork told him and keep everything the Time Master gave him. Now this made perfect sense!

...But he couldn't deal with it. Not now, at least. Dani would just-

Oh, right. He should probably give Dani a fair warning. Just because it wasn't the Dan Phantom created by his and Vlad's ghost halves from this Timeline, didn't mean that the possible danger was lessened.

Realizing he had zoned out, Danny pulled out his own Fenton Phone and placed it in his ear. "Dani? I got your signal."

No response.

"Dani?" Danny could feel his heart start to race. Dani couldn't be beaten, no! He couldn't risk losing her too... "Danielle Phantom, answer me!"

"Danielle is out of commission for the moment," Danny tensed as Dan's voice replied to him, "however, I am surprised you aren't. Tempest needs to strengthen her staff, it seems."

"Tempest's... staff?" Danny frowned, it was worse than he thought. From what he knew of Clockwork's Apprentice, she'd have to be re-killed, or rather have her existence ended, for her to willingly give up the blue staff she carried...

Oh no.

"What did you do to Tempest?!" the hybrid exclaimed, and all he earned from that was Dan laughing.

"I find it hilarious that you are more concerned for a ghost you don't even like than your family." The ghost replied, and Danny's ghostly aura flared up as his blue eyes turned green.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, let's see... your son is the first on my hit list, I just encountered our _cousin_, and your nephew, I believe Mark was his name, is off with your daughter in another dimension thanks to me." Dan laughed again, "Why don't you ask about any of them?"

"YOU _WHAT?!_" Danny screamed, immediately morphing into his ghost form and teleporting to where his map had pointed out Dani's location. As he arrived, he noticed that Dani seemed to be frozen in the spot and Dan was holding onto Tempest's staff with both hands.

Wait, Dani was frozen. It was almost as if... time had stopped...

If Danny wasn't directing all his focus to the ghost in front of him, he would've called himself clueless and wondered why he wasn't frozen in time like Dani.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!" he roared, and Dan raised an eyebrow.

"Was that supposed to be intimidating?" he asked, and Danny replied with an ice covered, blue energy fueled, Ghostly Wail.

Afterwards, Danny floated where he was. He glared at the ghost, and then suddenly took on a look of confusion.

He had just unleashed his most powerful attack, and Dan _only had a few bruises?!_

"You seem to have forgotten that I am not like those other sad attempts at my creation," Dan replied nonchalantly, flicking at one of his ears. "While they only have a measly ten years as being both Plasmius and Phantom, I have twenty-three. Twenty of them I spent training and becoming stronger. On top of that, I kept the experience I had from you and the cheesehead. I was created stronger from the beginning." He held up Tempest's staff, "What is it that Tempest says? Ah yes, time _in_."

"-Want!" Dani shouted, and then sounded confused. "Wait, Danny? When did you get here?"

Danny ignored her and his hands coated in purple energy, "Tell me what you've done to my daughter!"

"I already did," Dan answered, "huh, I don't recall being that clueless."

"What's going on?!" Dani demanded, only to be ignored once more.

"Don't insult me and tell me happened to my daughter!"

"Oh please, I can do what I want," Dan smirked, "who'll stop me, you? Need I remind you of what happened when you used your Ghostly Wail? Perhaps, I should show you mine..."

Danny and Dani both tried to fly out of the way but to no avail as what appeared to be flaming black rings of energy erupted from Dan's mouth. Danny took the brunt of the attack while Dani received more of a residual shock, but the both of them were thrown back for a long while before crashing to the ground and changing back to their human forms. Bruised, beaten, and broken, Danny decided as he watched Dan turn the air around him into a portal that today was the worst day of his life.

"Danny..." he turned his head slowly towards where Danielle was lying, in much better shape than he was. "It's good to see you fighting again, but you have a lot of explaining to do."

"He sent Jackie and Mark to an Alternate Timeline... he's after Darry..." Danny muttered, trying to stand up and failing. "He had Tempest's staff, so he can freeze time... Dani, we have to find him. We have to fight him, we can't let him hurt-"

Danny's speech ended as the pain from his injuries caused him to collapse onto his front with a gasp of pain.

"Danny?" he felt a hand on his shoulder, "I'm going to contact Valerie, okay? Just hang on, okay? Stay awake, Danny, or Sam will hurt you."

Mumbling intelligently in response, Danny came to the decision that he was done with feeling sorry for himself. His son could very well be stuck in the past, but the boy was smart. Darry could look after himself, Kelsey, and their friend for a little longer, and Danny had faith they wouldn't change the future too badly. Jackie and Mark were in an Alternate Timeline, though, which couldn't end...

Wait, Mark was in an Alternate Timeline?

How did that happen?

Danny groaned, but not from the pain he was currently in this time. Tucker and Jazz were already missing their daughter, and now a powered-up Dan says that he sent their eldest to an Alternate Timeline?

Danny tried to force himself up again as he came to the conclusion that his sister and best friend were probably going to kill him when he told them about that.

**Phil: So, it's over already? Good, this chapter sucks.**

…

**Huh, thought for sure that would get her to show up…**

**Anyway, though I have no clue why Torch has this chapter with two sections in third person, I'll just be pointing out the pattern she has decided on for the third person sections. First it's the point of view of a character in the future, such as future Danny. Second it's a character in the past, like past Danny. Third it's either Jackie or Mark, and fourth it's Tempest.**

…**Okay, so since Torch is not here and I have nobody to insult, I guess I'll be answering a question that was asked by Diana Lily because I get to be cryptic. The answer to her question is-**

**Torch: Well, if you look over this chapter and the second half of the last one you may find your answer.**

**Phil: I would be annoyed that you cut me off, but right now I'm more so confused about when you got here and where you were.**

**Torch: …Well, I wasn't hiding in my Pity Hole which magically worked its way into this story, that's for sure…**

**Phil: Somehow I doubt that.**

**Torch: Thanks to **_**Diana Lily **_**for favorting and following this story, and for her review!**

**Phil: The only advantage to you cancelling your updating schedule is that you can go back to focusing on your other story.**

**Torch: Considering the fact that I came up with a random ending for it, that isn't a half bad idea!**

**Walker: That hidden pun of yours is against the rules.**

**Phil: Wait, what? When, why, how- there was a pun in there?**

**Torch: You know what else is against the rules? Not reviewing, following, or favoriting!**

**Walker: …No it's not.**

**Torch: I CAN DREAM, HAROLD!**

**Phil: …I don't even want to know. But seriously, why is Walker here?**

**Torch: Heh, funny story… you see… me, him, and the Box Ghost...**

**Walker: Telling it is against the rules.**

**Phil: Darn it.**

**-Torch**


End file.
